Waste row ends in high court battle and £800k payout

A High Court case over a contract for the treatment of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) has resulted in a record payout of £801k plus substantial costs in favour of community waste management business Potters Waste Management.

The dispute, which ruled against Geminor in a damning indictment, revolved around domestic waste transported from the Isle of Anglesey to Immingham, Lincolnshire, via a processing and baling plant in Bootle operated by Potters’ nominated supplier Gaskells.

The waste was then bound for onward shipment to a waste-to-energy plant in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Judge Hodge found that Geminor had deliberately misled the court about the contract’s terms and the rejection of several loads of RDF by the shipping company DFDS, ruling that it was Geminor who had instructed the rejection of the waste, not DFDS, as the firm had claimed.

Potters is one of the largest industry operators in the West Midlands despite also having a base in Welshpool.

A Potter’s spokesperson said: “The Isle of Anglesey County Council issued an award of tender to us as lead contractor, agreeing services with Geminor and Gaskells. Residual household waste was to be collected on Anglesey and delivered to a reception and transfer station at Gaerwen.  The waste would be loaded into HGVs operated by Potters and transferred by road from Anglesey to the materials recovery facility operated by Gaskells in Bootle.

“Gaskells were to process and sort the loose waste as appropriate, recovering dry recyclables and wrapping the RDF bales produced.  The bales were then to be collected by Geminor, who would transfer the bales by road to the port of Immingham in Lincolnshire.  From there, the bales would be loaded onto transit cassettes by DFDS and shipped to Gothenburg in Sweden.  Geminor would then be responsible for removing the bales and transferring them to a thermal treatment plant operated by Renova AB. Geminor underwrote their offer of collecting residual municipal waste for EfW treatment for a period of 18 months, commencing on 1st February 2017 with the option for 2 further extensions of 12 months each.

“However, both ourselves and contractors Gaskells detected an obvious bad smell early in our relationship with multi-national operator Geminor, even before a large consignment of bales was rejected, with Geminor claiming, by DFDS. It is known in the industry that if DFDS decide to reject a load, it would make out a case report.  That was not done about nine rejected loads in question.”

A spokesperson for Gaskells said: “Geminor, in turn, was extremely dismissive towards us both prior to and during the gruelling and highly stressful court case, also alleging there was no contractual relationship between the parties in the first place. This was tantamount to bullying and defamation by a global business of two local, community-oriented, highly principled firms employing local people over many decades.

“There were also many damaging and false claims by Geminor during the case about the quality of Gaskells’ work… both of which were later rejected by Judge Hodge as more false statements by Geminor.”

The court heard that despite Geminor’s claims, Potters and Gaskells continued delivering waste without issue.

Between 2014 and 2018, 3,000 RDF loads were shipped, with only two rejected outside of the Anglesey consignment.

In his judgment, Judge Hodge said: “He was evasive, with a tendency to ramble, and prone to speculation and after-the-event reconstruction and rationalisation… I cannot accept his evidence where it conflicts with the evidence of the witnesses called by Potters. Speculation, for Mr Caunce, was a selective exercise, permissible when it might benefit Geminor, but impermissible when it might benefit Potters.”

The judge found Geminor in repudiatory breach of contract and ruled Potters was entitled to “recover damages on its primary, and hybrid, basis in the total sum of £801,041.20.”

A Potter’s spokesperson said after the ruling: “This completely unnecessary case involved an international company with an invincibility complex attempting to trash our and Gaskell’s long-established and highly regarded reputations. This judgment has merely served to strengthen our relationship with Gaskells, and we are delighted with the outcome. A sense of justice, fairness and balance has been delivered, and it strikes right at the heart of community businesses refusing to be bullied by global operators.”