:00:08. > :00:18.2013 showed The Maiden City off in a new light.
:00:19. > :00:21.Street party after street party. The capital of the North West was
:00:22. > :00:28.rebranded as a modern and progressive City of Culture.
:00:29. > :00:31.A tourist destination. But just outside the city, officials
:00:32. > :00:36.were finally getting to grips with a shocking discovery.
:00:37. > :00:40.And an ugly truth was bubbling to the surface..
:00:41. > :00:42.A huge illegal dump - thought to be one of the largest single cases in
:00:43. > :00:54.Europe. The scale of this is beyond anything
:00:55. > :00:57.that has been seen before. It is something of biblical
:00:58. > :01:00.proportions. It is a festering mass of steaming, stinking, putrefying
:01:01. > :01:03.waste. Tonight, in an investigation that
:01:04. > :01:07.has taken us to Eastern Europe, we reveal how over 500,000 tonnes of
:01:08. > :01:15.illegal waste ended up in the scenic countryside of the North West.
:01:16. > :01:17.The moment it would get dark, they were starting to dump things till
:01:18. > :01:21.the morning. We ask how the authorities got it so
:01:22. > :01:27.wrong? A huge illegal dump in the area says we need to do better.
:01:28. > :01:30.And we track down some of those involved with the site, to look for
:01:31. > :01:33.answers. Mr Doherty you must be able to
:01:34. > :01:37.explain how 500,000 tonnes ended up in your land? If Excuse me, I don't
:01:38. > :01:39.want to be ignorant to you. Could you please leave the golf
:01:40. > :02:07.course? Disposal of waste is a controversial
:02:08. > :02:12.business in Derry. This group are objecting to proposals for the
:02:13. > :02:14.future of waste management. Last Halloween, they took to the streets,
:02:15. > :02:20.to campaign against the development of a new plant that would turn waste
:02:21. > :02:26.into gas. Trust me, it is not an incinerator!
:02:27. > :02:30.But just a few miles from the city centre, an example of how waste has
:02:31. > :02:36.been dealt with in the past is buried just beneath the surface.
:02:37. > :02:42.In June of last year, a recycling company was dramatically shut down
:02:43. > :02:47.overnight. Six months earlier, the directors of a quarry company across
:02:48. > :02:50.the road had been arrested. They were later released and have not
:02:51. > :02:53.been charged. The then-Minister, Alex Attwood, ordered a full-scale
:02:54. > :02:57.investigation of activities at the Derry site.
:02:58. > :03:00.The scale of environmental damage and vandalism is beyond what we have
:03:01. > :03:04.seen before and, consequently, we have taken unprecedented steps, in
:03:05. > :03:07.order to revoke the licence of a waste management company, so that
:03:08. > :03:17.any and all of those who were responsible for this criminal
:03:18. > :03:21.activity are all dealt with. At first glance, you would have no
:03:22. > :03:25.idea what has really been going on in this area for the last few years.
:03:26. > :03:28.But the truth is astonishing. Just over there is a dump containing an
:03:29. > :03:33.estimated 500,000 tonnes of illegal waste... About ten Titanics in
:03:34. > :03:37.weight. And the truth is, nobody even knows
:03:38. > :03:39.what is in there. The land being investigated
:03:40. > :03:45.stretches for almost 1.5 kilometres - as far as the eye can see. In
:03:46. > :03:49.order to appreciate the sheer scale of the dump, thought to be the one
:03:50. > :03:53.of the single biggest cases discovered in Europe, you have to
:03:54. > :03:55.look at it from another perspective. And that is just what I am about to
:03:56. > :04:07.do. We are, literally, pretty much
:04:08. > :04:10.parallel with the road here and then, we are going to pick up the
:04:11. > :04:14.Faughan River here and follow it down to Drumahoe.
:04:15. > :04:19.Just below, we can see where the River Faughan meets the River Foyle,
:04:20. > :04:22.just outside Derry city. All The river, famous for its salmon
:04:23. > :04:27.fishing, is Special Area of Conservation, the highest degree of
:04:28. > :04:31.protection set by Europe. The council may want this to be a
:04:32. > :04:35.tourist magnet, but from up here, you can see how other industries got
:04:36. > :04:40.here first. Industries like quarrying. It is
:04:41. > :04:43.quite shocking how close the River Faughan is to the quarry and the
:04:44. > :04:46.waste management company, given that the River Faughan is a major
:04:47. > :04:55.drinking water source for the people of Derry.
:04:56. > :05:00.Two companies on the Mobuoy Road are at the heart of a criminal
:05:01. > :05:04.investigation. The quarry company seen here on the
:05:05. > :05:08.left, Campsie Sand Gravel, is owned by a man called Paul Doherty.
:05:09. > :05:11.Across the road is a recycling company, City Industrial Waste, that
:05:12. > :05:12.was paid by seven different councils, including Derry, to
:05:13. > :05:20.process recyclables. Paul Doherty initially owned City
:05:21. > :05:27.Waste, but in 2004 he sold it to these men, Gerry Farmer and Gerry
:05:28. > :05:30.O'Malley, from Armagh. Journalist Kevin Mullan says there was no
:05:31. > :05:33.reason to believe City Waste was anything other than a good news
:05:34. > :05:38.story. They were the poster boys, in terms
:05:39. > :05:42.of their own industry. They were painted as extremely professional.
:05:43. > :05:47.We assumed they were. Local press covered them and were quite gushing
:05:48. > :05:50.about their investment. As was only correct, I suppose, in the sense
:05:51. > :05:54.that they were employing people, they were making things here. But
:05:55. > :05:58.little did we know what was coming down the line.
:05:59. > :06:01.Sources have told Spotlight that investigators have found rubbish
:06:02. > :06:06.belonging to City Waste buried in one of Paul Doherty's quarries. We
:06:07. > :06:10.understand making the connection was a painstaking process and, in a
:06:11. > :06:13.statement in June, the DoE said the material was shredded, to disguise
:06:14. > :06:16.where it came from, Gerry Farmer, Gerry O'Malley and Paul Doherty
:06:17. > :06:24.strenuously deny any allegations of criminality.
:06:25. > :06:29.So how did 500,000 tonnes of illegal waste get there? For the last four
:06:30. > :06:31.months, we have been piecing together evidence, including
:06:32. > :06:33.eye-witness accounts, which suggest that, whoever was responsible, this
:06:34. > :06:41.was a complex and sophisticated scam. We have tracked down former
:06:42. > :06:46.workers from inside both companies. No-one has spoken publicly about
:06:47. > :06:50.what they say happened. Until now. Many of those processing rubbish at
:06:51. > :06:53.City Waste were Polish. Former workers we have interviewed have
:06:54. > :06:57.asked that we disguise their identities. "Tomak" says that,
:06:58. > :07:00.instead of being transported to lawful landfill, rubbish was
:07:01. > :07:04.shredded on site, loaded on to small dumper trucks, covered over and
:07:05. > :07:11.hidden with clay and dumped on the Mobuoy Road.
:07:12. > :07:14.I seen it being loaded and, even when they passed you, you know, you
:07:15. > :07:19.seen rubbish sticking out. Sometimes it was covered better than others,
:07:20. > :07:22.but you, you knew what it was. When the dumper trucks left the
:07:23. > :07:25.yard, what happened? They went out and the only place
:07:26. > :07:28.they went was either across to Campsie Sand Gravel or up to the
:07:29. > :07:31.dump. The "dump" is a disused quarry,
:07:32. > :07:37.owned by Paul Doherty, on the same side of the road as City Waste and
:07:38. > :07:41.accessed through the shared gate. Our source says you could not miss
:07:42. > :07:44.the trucks coming and going between the two companies.
:07:45. > :07:48.From what I seen, it was going on every day. There were dump trucks
:07:49. > :07:54.going every day, bar the days that NIEA was there.
:07:55. > :07:58.The NIEA is the Environment Agency within the Department of the
:07:59. > :08:02.Environment. It is their responsibility to keep an eye on
:08:03. > :08:07.sites like these and prevent illegal dumping. But according to our
:08:08. > :08:11.source, it was easy to get around the regulators. And when the
:08:12. > :08:13.inspectors left? That was business as usual - get the
:08:14. > :08:23.dumpers going. I had managed to track down another
:08:24. > :08:25.worker from inside City Waste who claimed to have witnessed rubbish
:08:26. > :08:37.from the company actually being illegally buried in Paul Doherty's
:08:38. > :08:40.quarries. I wanted to hear in detail his account of what he saw and Pawel
:08:41. > :08:51.agreed to be interviewed, in Poland's second city, Krakow.
:08:52. > :08:54.TRANSLATION: I was a witness, I have basically seen it happening. Plus,
:08:55. > :08:57.everybody was talking about it. It was basically shredded waste.
:08:58. > :09:02.Domestic waste, food, plastic bottles - anything you can find in
:09:03. > :09:05.any waste, basically. We have been told the site manager
:09:06. > :09:08.in charge of co-ordinating the dumping operation at City Waste was
:09:09. > :09:15.also Polish - this man, Radoslaw Dudzic, also known as Radek. Gerry
:09:16. > :09:19.Farmer and Gerry O'Malley were company directors, but our sources
:09:20. > :09:22.have told us that Radek was given a free hand to direct the Polish
:09:23. > :09:27.workers. So Radek coordinated the dumping?
:09:28. > :09:32.He told the people what to do. They didn't do anything without him
:09:33. > :09:36.telling them what to do. He was the one in charge. He was the one who
:09:37. > :09:40.was responsible for most of the things going on on site, And the
:09:41. > :09:44.people he was employing, all of them were Polish people.
:09:45. > :09:47.According to workers, instead of being processed properly, vast
:09:48. > :09:54.quantities of waste would simply vanish from the site overnight.
:09:55. > :09:58.At the end of the week, when you left, the shed would have been full
:09:59. > :10:03.of rubbish. And you come back in on a Monday, there would have been
:10:04. > :10:07.about half the rubbish gone. But waste was hidden in other ways
:10:08. > :10:11.on the site, too. We have obtained a copy of the notice issued to City
:10:12. > :10:15.Waste when their licence was revoked in June. It reveals that the site
:10:16. > :10:19.itself is effectively built on waste. Tens of thousands of tonnes
:10:20. > :10:22.of were hidden in different parts of the site, beneath bales, behind
:10:23. > :10:26.sheds and even used to construct banks at the edge of the yard.
:10:27. > :10:30.Spotlight understands that the NIEA asked Gerry Farmer whether he
:10:31. > :10:39.noticed these banks growing around him. He insists that he did not. Our
:10:40. > :10:46.ex-workers claim the illegal dumping was an open secret. How much
:10:47. > :10:47.knowledge do you think that the management had about what was going
:10:48. > :10:51.on? They knew everything. They knew
:10:52. > :10:55.where the rubbish was going and what was going on.
:10:56. > :11:00.Gerry Farmer was there all, all the time. The more He was, he was one of
:11:01. > :11:04.the first ones in the yards in the morning and one of the last to leave
:11:05. > :11:10.at night. Than The amount of cameras they had over the place.. They say
:11:11. > :11:14.they do not know what was going on. It is lies.
:11:15. > :11:19.Is it possible that Gerry Farmer and Gerry O'Malley were not aware of the
:11:20. > :11:23.illegal operation on site? I think, no. I think they knew. I
:11:24. > :11:27.think they must have known. We tried to speak to Radek Dudzic,
:11:28. > :11:32.Gerry Farmer and Gerry O'Malley about their actions at City Waste.
:11:33. > :11:36.Radek did not respond to our e-mails or letters. Sources say he has left
:11:37. > :11:39.the country and is building a new house in Poland. Company directors
:11:40. > :11:42.Gerry Farmer and Gerry O'Malley told us, via their solicitor, that they
:11:43. > :11:47.could not comment, due to the ongoing investigation. In fact,
:11:48. > :11:52.there is no legal reason as to why they cannot speak to us I mean, they
:11:53. > :11:55.can if they want to, so I am just coming up to Gerry Farmer's house.
:11:56. > :12:01.He lives in Donegal, just across the border.There is no response at the
:12:02. > :12:04.door. If there is someone in, they are not answering. So, I am going to
:12:05. > :12:11.leave another letter for Gerry Farmer, which is just one in a long
:12:12. > :12:15.list we have sent to him. Gerry Farmer's car was parked at his gate.
:12:16. > :12:21.A pair of workman's boots lay just inside the front door and there were
:12:22. > :12:25.fresh footprints in the snow. We're just on our way now down to the
:12:26. > :12:40.South Armagh border now where Gerry O'Malley lives. Let's see if he will
:12:41. > :12:44.speak with us. Hello? Good morning. Alys Harte from BBC Spotlight. I'd
:12:45. > :12:49.just like to ask you a few questions please. The lights at the house have
:12:50. > :12:59.just gone out so I'm not sure we're going to get a response. We've
:13:00. > :13:04.written letters and emails to him asking questions about Mobuoy Road.
:13:05. > :13:11.We haven't had any answers to our questions. It doesn't look like they
:13:12. > :13:14.want to speak with us. What happened at Mobuoy Road has serious
:13:15. > :13:17.implications for all of us. Since its closure, the DOE has been
:13:18. > :13:20.cleaning up the City Waste site in an effort to prevent potential
:13:21. > :13:23.pollutants from reaching the river. When rainwater seeps through dumps
:13:24. > :13:30.like this, gases and bacteria from the decomposing waste dissolve in
:13:31. > :13:35.the water. This highly toxic run-off, known as leachate, can then
:13:36. > :13:37.contaminate streams and rivers. Since the investigation started,
:13:38. > :13:40.pollution has been discovered in this tributary which runs just
:13:41. > :13:46.beside where City Waste used to operate. Dean Blackwood has been
:13:47. > :13:57.fishing the River Faughan for years. This is my river. I've grown up on
:13:58. > :14:01.it since I suppose 45, 50 years, I remember my father brought me out
:14:02. > :14:05.here and I learned to fish. Now you can see I'm bringing my sun out to
:14:06. > :14:14.fish. I hope some day he will bring his children but to the river. I
:14:15. > :14:19.think it's just something that's always been in me, just sitting with
:14:20. > :14:23.a stick on a line on a hook and lemon curd sandwiches, that was just
:14:24. > :14:26.that was my river and it still is my river. Dean believes the planning
:14:27. > :14:34.authorities let Paul Doherty off the hook. Oh! I lost him. Doherty
:14:35. > :14:37.quarried into his land here along the river for over a decade. These
:14:38. > :14:41.quarries needed planning permission. Which Doherty didn't have. He may be
:14:42. > :14:46.a keen fisherman, but Dean also wears another hat. Up until March of
:14:47. > :14:54.last year, he was a Principal Planning Officer at the DOE. Since
:14:55. > :14:58.his early retirement, he's taken a special interest in what happened
:14:59. > :15:00.here at Mobuoy Road, and how huge quarries have operated for years
:15:01. > :15:03.here with no planning permission whatsoever. They are quarrying
:15:04. > :15:06.without permission. And it is important to realise at this stage
:15:07. > :15:09.that planning law does not forbid that as such. It is these
:15:10. > :15:12.unauthorised quarried holes which have become home to huge amounts of
:15:13. > :15:15.illegal waste. The problem, I suppose, has been that they have
:15:16. > :15:20.been allowed to continue to operate and quarry for a period of around 11
:15:21. > :15:23.years, or possibly more. Do you think that without these
:15:24. > :15:26.unauthorised holes in the ground, do you think that the illegal dumping
:15:27. > :15:31.would have happened? It couldn't have happened, no, it couldn't have
:15:32. > :15:33.happened. In fact, 60% of all current quarry operations in
:15:34. > :15:38.Northern Ireland have no planning permission. Dean thinks the Planning
:15:39. > :15:43.Department has a lot to answer for at Mobuoy Road. By operating that
:15:44. > :15:45.policy of not taking action against unauthorised development, it clearly
:15:46. > :15:49.leaves the department complicit in the damage that's being caused here
:15:50. > :15:55.and permanent threat that is now being posed to our river. The
:15:56. > :15:58.Planning Department says unauthorised mineral extraction is
:15:59. > :16:03.of concern to it, but suggested we ask the quarry industry why it was
:16:04. > :16:06.so common. They say it places a strain on existing staff resources
:16:07. > :16:12.but are restructuring to allocate more resources to enforcement. They
:16:13. > :16:15.fully accept that a lack of joined-up thinking between planning
:16:16. > :16:21.and the Environment Agency meant they failed to deal with this
:16:22. > :16:28.illegal activity effectively. But it wasn't only planning who took their
:16:29. > :16:30.eye off the ball at Mobuoy Road. A recent independent report
:16:31. > :16:34.commissioned by the Minister into the failings of the DOE in this case
:16:35. > :16:38.found that both planners and the site regulators failed to do their
:16:39. > :16:41.job. The author Chris Mills found that lax planning provided holes in
:16:42. > :16:47.the ground that were then exploited, and a regulator that wasn't looking
:16:48. > :16:50.closely enough. Spotlight has uncovered evidence that shows that
:16:51. > :16:56.directors from both companies should have been on the department's radar.
:16:57. > :16:59.Paul Doherty was prosecuted by the Department for pollution arising
:17:00. > :17:05.from illegal dumping at Mobuoy Road in 2000. This file shows
:17:06. > :17:08.investigators found a dead calf, car exhausts, tyres and computer screens
:17:09. > :17:15.dumped at the site and described the pollution as "very serious" and of
:17:16. > :17:18."high severity". Gerry Farmer and Gerry O'Malley were convicted in
:17:19. > :17:29.2012 for illegally storing over half a million tyres. In both cases, the
:17:30. > :17:33.prosecutions were taken by the DOE. Dr Ciara Brennan is an environmental
:17:34. > :17:36.lawyer with expertise in this area. Regardless of who is responsible for
:17:37. > :17:39.burying waste at Mobuoy Road, she thinks the current system makes
:17:40. > :17:45.illegal dumping attractive to criminals. Landfill tax has
:17:46. > :17:49.gradually increased over the last few years. It is now at about ?72 a
:17:50. > :17:52.tonne. It is designed to be a disincentive for companies and waste
:17:53. > :17:58.management companies to get rid of their waste by landfill. But at the
:17:59. > :18:01.same time, it is also an incentive for people to try to avoid paying
:18:02. > :18:04.any landfill tax whatsoever. There are very big incentives for
:18:05. > :18:09.companies to try to avoid paying landfill tax, it is considered an
:18:10. > :18:13.overhead. But whenever you come to a site like this where we know there
:18:14. > :18:16.is over half a million tonnes of illegally dumped waste, that is half
:18:17. > :18:20.a million tonnes of waste that have not been subject to landfill tax.
:18:21. > :18:25.And that is tens of millions of pounds the public purse has missed
:18:26. > :18:29.out on. And that is before we take into account what they were paid by
:18:30. > :18:33.the council to dispose of the waste in the first place. Exactly. So they
:18:34. > :18:36.have essentially profited twice. When the gates of City Waste were
:18:37. > :18:40.dramatically closed last summer, it came as a shock to many. But it
:18:41. > :18:43.shouldn't have been a shock to the Environment Agency. Under Freedom of
:18:44. > :18:50.Information, Spotlight has obtained paperwork from site visits by the
:18:51. > :18:53.Agency for the last seven years. These inspection reports show that
:18:54. > :18:59.the Agency knew for years that this was a problematic site. City Waste
:19:00. > :19:03.broke the same rules over and over. And the Agency's response was weak.
:19:04. > :19:06.Any written warnings given by inspectors seemed to fall on deaf
:19:07. > :19:12.ears and ultimately did little to bring the company into line. This
:19:13. > :19:17.was a site heaving with compliance issues. These photos show how waste
:19:18. > :19:23.got so out of hand, the company had to build a shed around the rubbish.
:19:24. > :19:33.It reached crisis point in 2010 when a major fire occurred on site. --
:19:34. > :19:36.three major fires occurred on site. E-mails between the Environment
:19:37. > :19:39.Agency and City Waste catalogue a series of compliance demands from
:19:40. > :19:45.the NIEA and a series of excuses from City Waste. I am in the USA and
:19:46. > :19:48.the compliance manager is on vacation. Unfortunately due to me
:19:49. > :19:54.getting delayed by a hurricane, this didn't happen. In March 2011, the
:19:55. > :19:59.NIEA are beginning to run out of patience. I would warn you this
:20:00. > :20:04.level of tolerance is now nearing an end. The new boss at the Agency
:20:05. > :20:08.agrees that more could and should have been done. We can't argue that
:20:09. > :20:12.we didn't do a good enough job here. There is a serious level of illegal
:20:13. > :20:16.dumping, there is a track record of noncompliance at the waste facility
:20:17. > :20:20.site. We do need to fix our system. But was it good enough in this
:20:21. > :20:25.instance? I wasn't here at the time. But you are in charge now. I am in
:20:26. > :20:29.charge now. What I am doing is looking at this case. We will take
:20:30. > :20:32.advice from the Mills Report and we need to get tougher and better on
:20:33. > :20:36.those who are breaking the law. It wasn't until Spring 2012 that the
:20:37. > :20:39.truth of the illegal dump began to surface. A planning official noticed
:20:40. > :20:42.methane gas actually bubbling up through a disused quarry - a sign
:20:43. > :20:48.that decomposing rubbish was fermenting underground. But the
:20:49. > :20:50.Mills Report listed a string of opportunities missed by the
:20:51. > :20:52.department going back years, that could have led to its discovery much
:20:53. > :21:02.earlier. During our investigation we
:21:03. > :21:09.uncovered a letter to the NIEA from a government agency back in 2008.
:21:10. > :21:14.The letter clearly warned of the possibility of material being
:21:15. > :21:16.shredded and disposed of on site. This should have been a major red
:21:17. > :21:26.flag to the authorities. I asked the author of the letter,
:21:27. > :21:31.John McCartney, of the Loughs Agency, what he had expected to
:21:32. > :21:34.happen. I suppose in an ideal world an investigation undertaken, a
:21:35. > :21:37.subsequent prosecution or a response to say there wasn't an issue, that
:21:38. > :21:50.we were misinformed or our concerns were unjustified. The NIEA says is
:21:51. > :21:55.has no record of having received the Loughs Agency letter. This is a
:21:56. > :21:58.government body telling the agency that they suspect that there is
:21:59. > :22:04.illegal dumping and shredding of waste, which is exactly what
:22:05. > :22:09.happened. I can't change the past. I know we need to do better. That is
:22:10. > :22:12.very clear. John is concerned about pollution already detected in a
:22:13. > :22:18.tributary that flows into the River Faughan. There is a real fear that
:22:19. > :22:22.we could wake up one morning and find the fish population have been
:22:23. > :22:25.wiped out in the river. That is the absolute worst case scenario, but in
:22:26. > :22:33.the absence of any real information, we have to consider that as a
:22:34. > :22:36.possibility. Ciara Brennan says whoever the illegal operators might
:22:37. > :22:41.have been, she is shocked at the response of the Department, given
:22:42. > :22:44.the combination of warning signs. It amazes me that no meaningful
:22:45. > :22:49.enforcement action was taken before 2012. And the fact that these
:22:50. > :22:52.reports and these warnings go back almost ten years is highly
:22:53. > :22:55.concerning because essentially the illegal operator was able to
:22:56. > :22:58.continue to make money, to make huge profits and continue polluting and
:22:59. > :23:00.harming the environment without really any ramifications, despite
:23:01. > :23:10.all of these warning signs for so many years. The head of Friends of
:23:11. > :23:14.the Earth says the DOE is dysfunctional. Here we have a
:23:15. > :23:17.classic case that should have been predicted, where strong agents
:23:18. > :23:20.within the system were calling for action for many years and those
:23:21. > :23:25.agents within the system were neutralised or completely ignored. I
:23:26. > :23:28.think these things are inevitable when we have what I would describe
:23:29. > :23:29.as a complete breakdown in environmental regulation in Northern
:23:30. > :23:43.Ireland. We'll probably never know all the
:23:44. > :23:46.secrets of the dump at Mobuoy Road. The notice that closed City Waste
:23:47. > :23:52.said suspected asbestos was found on site. We've spoken to sources who
:23:53. > :23:56.say they saw what they believe was chemical waste and medical waste
:23:57. > :24:02.dumped on site. The truth is, no-one knows. Since the licence was revoked
:24:03. > :24:05.back in June, the NIEA has been investigating Gerry O'Malley, Gerry
:24:06. > :24:12.Farmer, and quarry boss Paul Doherty and his wife Margaret. But in a
:24:13. > :24:15.remarkable twist to the story, Spotlight has discovered that within
:24:16. > :24:19.months of the beginning of the NIEA investigation, Paul Doherty sold one
:24:20. > :24:25.of the quarries that harboured a lot of the illegal waste. The law says
:24:26. > :24:29.that if you own the land, you're responsible for any illegal dumping
:24:30. > :24:31.on it. A Polish man, Waldemar Piecki, bought the contaminated
:24:32. > :24:42.field for ?26,000 in November 2012 - lands Paul Doherty had himself paid
:24:43. > :24:46.?200,000 for in 2009. It's unclear as to whether or not Mr Piecki, who
:24:47. > :24:51.is said to be a vagrant, knew the land contained illegal waste before
:24:52. > :24:55.he bought it. Paul Doherty refuses to answer any of our questions. Like
:24:56. > :24:58.Gerry Farmer and Gerry O'Malley, he strenuously denies all allegations
:24:59. > :25:01.of criminality or that his actions resulted in environmental harm,
:25:02. > :25:07.public health risk or implications for the public purse. His solicitor
:25:08. > :25:10.cites the ongoing criminal investigation as a reason not to
:25:11. > :25:15.comment, but there's no legal reason why he can't speak to us if he wants
:25:16. > :25:19.to. Hello, Mr Doherty. My name is Alys
:25:20. > :25:23.Harte. I'm a reporter from BBC Spotlight. I'd just like to ask you
:25:24. > :25:27.how half a million tonnes of illegal waste ended up in your land on the
:25:28. > :25:31.Mobuoy Road. I've nothing to say to you. You can go and speak to my
:25:32. > :25:35.solicitor, please. How did half a million tonnes of illegal waste end
:25:36. > :25:38.up in your land? Would you go and speak to my solicitor, please? We
:25:39. > :25:41.have done. I've written letters to you for months, Mr Doherty. Look,
:25:42. > :25:44.would you please leave the golf course. You're standing on a green.
:25:45. > :25:47.That's a putting green. Mr Doherty... We're all wearing golf
:25:48. > :25:51.shoes. You're not. Please get off the golf course. You must be able to
:25:52. > :25:55.explain how the waste ended up in your land. Mr Doherty... Would you
:25:56. > :25:59.please leave this golf course? Do we have to call the guards? If we have
:26:00. > :26:04.to, that's what we'll have to do. Would you like to talk to us off the
:26:05. > :26:08.golf course, Mr Doherty? Please leave the golf course. It's clear
:26:09. > :26:13.that lack of effective regulation played a major role in events at
:26:14. > :26:17.Mobuoy Road. The NIEA and Derry Council both have a responsibility
:26:18. > :26:22.to make sure that when it comes to waste management, people stick to
:26:23. > :26:27.the rules. How waste is disposed of in future has been mapped out by a
:26:28. > :26:31.group of seven North West councils. And just three miles from the Mobuoy
:26:32. > :26:41.Road, plans are under way to build a large-scale plant that would turn
:26:42. > :26:45.waste into gas. But the technology is controversial and some locals are
:26:46. > :26:50.petitioning against the plant. I'm not just coming for Hallowe'en! Up
:26:51. > :26:53.for grabs is a ?500 million contract - the biggest of its kind in
:26:54. > :26:56.Northern Ireland's history. A consortium of companies, including
:26:57. > :27:02.Derry-based bin collectors Brickkiln Waste Ltd, has been declared
:27:03. > :27:05."preferred bidder". When we spoke to local councillor and former Derry
:27:06. > :27:09.Mayor Shaun Gallagher, he was leading the charge for the new
:27:10. > :27:13.plant. Throughout his career he has taken a special interest in waste
:27:14. > :27:16.management. He has represented local government on waste matters at the
:27:17. > :27:19.Executive, and until recently advised the Minister as vice chair
:27:20. > :27:29.of the Northern Ireland Waste Programme Board. I live here, where
:27:30. > :27:34.the plantains. -- where the plant is. I am across the river from it. I
:27:35. > :27:38.am not going to poison myself, I am not going to poison my children, and
:27:39. > :27:41.if somebody can come up with a better plan, we are all ears. But
:27:42. > :27:45.what do we know about Brickkiln? Spotlight has discovered that the
:27:46. > :27:47.company has been involved in a legal dispute with Derry Council over
:27:48. > :27:50.accusations of overcharging. We've seen a leaked legal opinion which
:27:51. > :27:53.details that Derry City Council received an anonymous tip-off from a
:27:54. > :27:55.whistle-blower back in 2011. According to the document, the
:27:56. > :27:58.council commissioned an independent investigation into the allegations,
:27:59. > :28:02.which concluded that Brickkiln appeared to be charging the council
:28:03. > :28:05.for waste that was not theirs. The leaked document details how CCTV
:28:06. > :28:07.footage appeared to show Brickkiln lorries arriving in their yard
:28:08. > :28:14.already partially loaded with waste and being topped up with Derry City
:28:15. > :28:16.Council waste. It says they wrote to Brickkiln accusing them of passing
:28:17. > :28:20.off waste from other sources as theirs. In the barrister's opinion,
:28:21. > :28:24.the evidence was sufficient to terminate the contract. Derry City
:28:25. > :28:28.Council officials declined to be interviewed for this programme, and
:28:29. > :28:31.claimed not yet to be in a position to release the investigation report
:28:32. > :28:33.to Spotlight.? But in writing, they told us that very serious
:28:34. > :28:36.consideration was given to terminating the contract with
:28:37. > :28:42.Brickkiln and that they had referred the matter to the police and to the
:28:43. > :28:45.NIEA. The council say that no criminal activity could be
:28:46. > :28:49.determined, and in the end, they chose to settle the case with
:28:50. > :28:52.Brickkiln. But the council did confirm that it withheld ?30,000
:28:53. > :28:54.initially billed by Brickkiln because the company was unable to
:28:55. > :29:03.provide satisfactory documentation for the invoices in question. I
:29:04. > :29:09.asked Shaun Gallagher about the council's legal dispute with
:29:10. > :29:14.Brickkiln. I know for a fact that legal dispute was settled out of
:29:15. > :29:17.court. Derry Council had evidence that Brickkiln was charging for
:29:18. > :29:22.waste that was not theirs. I am not aware of that. As elected members,
:29:23. > :29:26.we haven't got any of that detail. You haven't been told about the... I
:29:27. > :29:30.am not aware of it, no, I haven't. Well, Derry Council commissioned the
:29:31. > :29:33.report. I am not going into it because we have very strict
:29:34. > :29:37.guidelines given to us as elected members as far as the North West bid
:29:38. > :29:40.is concerned and we can't comment until that process is processed and
:29:41. > :29:45.basically if you put those questions to them... I know, but you should
:29:46. > :29:48.know this, you are on the waste management group.
:29:49. > :29:51.Shaun Gallagher was the Derry City representative on the coalition of
:29:52. > :29:55.councils who decided the half a billion pound contract. Derry
:29:56. > :29:58.Council has confirmed to Spotlight that all elected members were
:29:59. > :30:03.advised of the findings of the independent investigation. The legal
:30:04. > :30:06.dispute lasted at least a year and a half,?and an argument about
:30:07. > :30:09.arbitration ended up in the High Court. There, the judge referred to
:30:10. > :30:12.the council's contention that Brickkiln had engaged in possibly
:30:13. > :30:22.criminal acts - an allegation that Brickkiln denied. At the end of the
:30:23. > :30:26.day, I am not aware of any of that. Should you have been made aware of
:30:27. > :30:30.it? I am not going to comment, on record or anything on it. But why
:30:31. > :30:34.not, if this is the company that is involved in the consortium? You know
:30:35. > :30:38.what is happening here? Is this an ambush, is this an ambush on myself?
:30:39. > :30:42.No. Well, I feel like I am being ambushed here, so we will probably
:30:43. > :30:45.end this now. But you are the Derry City Council representative, that is
:30:46. > :30:49.why I am asking. No. We will just end it now, OK, thank you. After the
:30:50. > :30:52.interview, Shaun Gallagher wrote to Spotlight and asked us not to
:30:53. > :30:56.broadcast any part of it. He claimed the questions were not what he
:30:57. > :30:59.expected. He says he now accepts he must have missed the detail of the
:31:00. > :31:02.report given by the council about the Brickkiln dispute and puts that
:31:03. > :31:05.down to human air. -- mistake. Brickkiln Waste Ltd has three sister
:31:06. > :31:09.companies based at their headquarters on Heather Road. The
:31:10. > :31:11.director of all four companies is a man called Thomas McGlinchey. During
:31:12. > :31:13.our investigation, Spotlight has discovered that one of those
:31:14. > :31:16.companies, Brickkiln Civil Engineering Ltd, was convicted of
:31:17. > :31:23.illegal dumping in Donegal last year. The company pleaded guilty to
:31:24. > :31:27.the offences, which took place on the Inishowen Penninsula. Brickkiln
:31:28. > :31:34.Civil Engineering Ltd also had a 2006 conviction under the Waste and
:31:35. > :31:37.Contaminated Land Order. We wrote to the director of Brickkiln, Tommy
:31:38. > :31:41.McGlinchey, asking him about the dispute with Derry City Council. His
:31:42. > :31:44.solicitor wrote back and said Brickkiln Waste Ltd had to issue
:31:45. > :31:48.proceedings in the High Court against Derry Council and that this
:31:49. > :31:56.action was settled by the parties in 2013 by the payment of a substantial
:31:57. > :31:59.sum to Brickkiln. They also said that they could not comment on the
:32:00. > :32:04.ongoing procurement as the project has not yet closed. We asked them
:32:05. > :32:07.about the convictions on both sides of the border and whether they had
:32:08. > :32:10.informed the councils and the North West management group about them.
:32:11. > :32:12.The solicitor confirmed the convictions but said they related to
:32:13. > :32:16.Brickkiln Civil Engineering Ltd, which "is not part of any
:32:17. > :32:23.consortium, nor has it tendered to the North West Management Group".
:32:24. > :32:27.What they didn't say, of course, is that the two companies both have a
:32:28. > :32:31.director called Thomas McGlinchey and are based at the same address at
:32:32. > :32:34.Heather Road. We asked the North West Waste Management Group if they
:32:35. > :32:37.were aware of Brickkiln Civil Engineering's convictions. In a
:32:38. > :32:41.statement they said, "Before final award of contract, we would complete
:32:42. > :32:44.a considerable number of further due diligence checks" and "we are making
:32:45. > :32:47.inquiries in relation to the events relating to Brickkiln" and that "it
:32:48. > :32:55.would be inappropriate to comment further until fully appraised of the
:32:56. > :32:58.facts". What's clear is that we need to learn lessons from how scenic
:32:59. > :33:03.countryside around Mobuoy Road has become home to one of Europe's
:33:04. > :33:06.biggest illegal dumps. Taxpayers can expect to cough up in the region of
:33:07. > :33:12.?100 million to clear out contaminated lands at Mobuoy Road.
:33:13. > :33:15.As the Department of the Environment considers criticisms of its
:33:16. > :33:16.regulation, Derry is left to ponder the unknown, buried underneath its
:33:17. > :33:21.feet.