The millionaire owner of Norfolk’s notorious tyre mountain is set to be around £270,000 better off, after missing a council-enforced deadline to clean up the site by more than four years.
Roger Gawn estimates he will be paid around £120,000 for the used rubber on the site near Fakenham, because the war in Ukraine has pushed up the global prices of oil and oil-derived products. Before the price hikes, it would have cost him £150,000 to have it taken away.
The tyres will be shipped to developing countries where they will be burned as fuel in power plants and cement factories.
His windfall comes as North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) officers gear up to finally prosecute the businessman, to whom they issued a planning enforcement notice in 2015 which gave him until November 2018 to clear the site of all tyres and associated machinery.
We can also reveal Mr Gawn, 76, has recently benefited from a £12,000 write-off of back taxes owed to the council, after officers agreed to a 15pc reduction of an overdue bill, and he remains in dispute for other five-figure sums.
A resident who lives close to the site, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “It was because he promised to clear the site quickly, which he understood would cost him money, that Mr Gawn was allowed to buy it in 2009 and given all the licences to process the tyres.
“But he hasn’t done that, and it’s been an environmental hazard for years while he’s run rings around the council.
“So because of the council’s ineffectiveness this gentleman who has broken a lot of promises to improve the site will save the money he would have had to pay to keep his promises.
“Instead he’s making all this money from oil prices while the rest of us are struggling to afford petrol in our cars.”
It pays to burn rubber
Mr Gawn told the EDP he would not make a profit on the deal due to the costs of managing the site and employing staff to process the tyres but acknowledged the project would now come in “well under” his original cost estimates, adding: “It makes it economic to get rid of them”.
He estimated clearing the site will fill around another 220 shipping containers, each with 25 tonnes of used tyres.
“Two months ago we had to pay maybe £700 per container to get it taken away, but now we’ve got someone who will pay us £500 or £600 per container,” he said.
“Tyres have a high calorific value, and because the energy price is so high for oil, it perversely puts up the value of old tyres.”
He went on: “They’ve been a fuel source for years, and in this country, currently, they are used as a supplementary fuel source for certain power stations that can handle them … and/or to cement works where they need the high heat output for turning gypsum into cement.”
Asked if his tyres were headed for UK power plants he clarified: “No, It’s third world, it’s not local. It’s all totally, officially legal through the Environment Agency, there’s nothing dodgy about it at all.”
He has now employed a full-time site manager with WAMITAB waste management qualifications and predicts rubber exports will restart within days and finish within two years.
He said: “Now we really know what we’re doing, I’m certain it’ll be cleared in two years. We’re in good shape.”
A long and winding road
Norfolk’s rubbery eyesore came into existence in 1998 when the Environment Agency granted a licence for a tyre collection business at Tattersett Business Park, near the former RAF base on the outskirts of Fakenham.
By 2000 more than a million car and lorry tyres had been heaped into mounds more than 5m high and 100m long and wide.
After a spell in the hands of French bank Societe Generale, the site was purchased by Mr Gawn in 2009. He told the Fakenham and Wells Times work to clear the tyre mountain would begin within eight weeks.
Then-county councillor David Callaby said at the time: “I am very pleased that at least somebody has finally taken responsibility for these tyres; he is a brave man and is to be respected.
“In my role as a county councillor, I will continue to monitor the situation and make sure that things don't slide as they have done numerous times before.”
Six years later, after considerable legal wrangling and disputes, North Norfolk District Council issued a planning enforcement notice ordering Mr Gawn to clear the site.
It ordered the removal of 2000 tonnes of tyres by October 2016, a further 2,000 by October 2017, and all remaining tyres by November 30, 2018.
Today, four years past that final deadline, 13 years into Mr Gawn’s tenure as owner, and 24 years after the original licence was granted, an estimated 5,500 tonnes of tyres remain.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the matter have told the EDP that Mr Gawn will now be summoned to a meeting next week at which he will be warned that unless removal recommences immediately, the local authority will begin prosecution proceedings against him.
The controversial entrepreneur is no stranger to legal battles.
He has been embroiled in disputes with the former owners of a silk company he bought, an 80-year-old tenant who claimed Gawn had his garden ripped up with a JCB, and NNDC over changes he made to a Grade I listed property, Melton Constable Hall near Holt, without planning permission.
"I wouldn’t fight anyone unless I had to, but if I have to, I’ll always fight,” Mr Gawn said. "I’ve done a lot of court cases."
NNDC ward councillor for the Raynhams, Nigel Housden, refused to comment. County Councillor for Fakenham, Tom Fitzpatrick, could not be reached for comment.
An NNDC spokesman said: "The council is actively addressing the issue of the tyres with the landowner, and a planning enforcement notice has been served requiring removal of the tyres from the site.
"The council expects full compliance with the notice and for this work to be carried out responsibly and lawfully."
The spokesman said he could not comment further while the enforcement action was ongoing. He said Mr Gawn would remain liable for prosecution until the last tyre has been removed.
A taxing dispute
In a separate development Mr Gawn also recently won a 15pc write-off from the council in a dispute over an outstanding tax bill, we can reveal.
This autumn his unpaid business rates for just one part of his property empire stood at £80,291.
But after he and his lawyers contested the amount, which Mr Gawn described as “an incorrect assessment of sums due”, the council agreed to a payment of just £68,247, a reduction of more than £12,000.
The EDP understands the two parties are also currently in dispute over a separate bill in the region of £30,000.
A council spokesman said: “NNDC has successfully received payments relating to unpaid business rates and are continuing to review liabilities and progress enforcement for any unpaid debts.”
If you have information about this or any other story you believe should be investigated please email joel.adams@archant.co.uk
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