QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
DIVISIONAL COURT
Royal Courts of Justice Strand London WC2A 2LL |
||
B e f o r e :
MR JUSTICE CALVERT-SMITH
____________________
MILTON KEYNES DISTRICT COUNCIL | Appellant | |
v | ||
FULLER & McVEIGH | Respondents |
____________________
WordWave International Limited
A Merrill Communications Company
165 Fleet Street London EC4A 2DY
Tel No: 020 7404 1400 Fax No: 020 7404 1424
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
MR B MOORHOUSE (instructed by Thring Townsend Lee & Pembertons) appeared on behalf of the Respondents
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
LORD JUSTICE AIKENS:
(A) The Appeal
(B) The Provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990
"(1) Subject to (1A), (1B), (2) and (3) below and, in relation to Scotland, to section 54 below, a person shall not:
"(a)deposit controlled waste or extractive waste, or knowingly cause or knowingly permit controlled waste or extractive waste to be deposited in or on any land unless an environmental permit authorising the deposit is in force and the deposit is in accordance with the licence;
"(b)submit controlled waste, or knowingly cause or knowingly permit controlled waste to be submitted, to any listed operation (other than an operation within subsection (1)(a)) that:
(i)is carried out in or on any land, or by means of any mobile plant, and.
(ii)is not carried out under and in accordance with an environmental permit."
(C) The Facts as found by the Justices
"In relation to the admission by the Respondents concerning the waste, we do not find that this amounts to a deposit. We find the evidence of Mr Fuller and Mr McVeigh to be credible and accept that the waste had already been illegally deposited on the verge. We find this because Mr Fuller is experienced in waste removal as another of his firms has a licence and equipment to deal with this aspect of their business. He also made a telephone call to Milton Keynes Council to report the waste, which we find he would not have done if he intended to dispose of the waste illegally.
"We accept the evidence of Mr McVeigh regarding his manoeuvres of the tractor and that reversing would be impossible in that location due to our local knowledge of that area of the road as detailed at 11(b) and illustrated in the photographs produced. We find that their movement to clear access to their own property does not amount to a deposit because, having found their evidence to be credible as detailed above, we find that the waste had already been illegally deposited on the verge by another. This distinguishes this case from Thames Waste Management Ltd v Surrey CC, where the Defendants in that case were themselves the depositors of the waste and had failed to cover their deposit, which resulted in the commission of the offence."
(D) The question for the Opinion of the Court
"Whether the movement of controlled waste by the Respondents that was blocking the entrance to a field (in order to clear a route to gain access to their own property), to the public verge, amounted to a "deposit" for the purposes of Section 33(1)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990."
(E) The arguments of the parties
(F) The question posed in the Case Stated: discussion
"But unless the particular context otherwise dictates, it should be interpreted in the broad sense in which it is used in everyday speech" (see page 331K).
"To clear access to their own property does not amount to a deposit because, having found their evidence to be credible as detailed above, we find that the waste had already been illegally deposited on the verge by another."
"Conduct which evidences a disrespect for the rights of others so that it is likely to cause their resentment or give rise to protest from them is insulting behaviour within the meaning of section 5 of the Public Order Act 136."
"In my judgment that is not right. The meaning of an ordinary word of the English language is not a question of law. The proper construction of a statute is a question of law. If the context shows that a word is used in an unusual sense the Court will determine in other words what that unusual sense is, but here there is, in my opinion, no question of the word "insulting" being used in any unusual sense. It appears to me, for reasons which I shall give later, to be intended to have its ordinary meaning. It is for the tribunal which decides the case to consider, not as law but as fact, whether in the whole circumstances the words of the statute do or do not, as a matter of ordinary usage of the English language, cover or apply to the facts which have been proved. If it is alleged that the tribunal has reached a wrong decision then there can be a question of law but only of a limited character.
"The question would normally be whether their decision was unreasonable in the sense that no tribunal acquainted with the ordinary use of language could reasonably reach that decision.
Were it otherwise we should reach an impossible position. When considering the meaning of a word one often goes to a dictionary. There one finds other words set out and if one wants to pursue the matter and find the meaning of those other words the dictionary will give the meaning of those other words in still farther words which often include the word for whose meaning one is searching. No doubt the Court could act as a dictionary. It could direct the tribunal to take some word or phrase other than the word in the statute and consider whether that word or phrase applied to or covered the facts proved but we have been warned time and again not to substitute other words for the words of a statute and there is very good reason for that. Few words have exact synonyms. The overtones are almost always different or the Court could frame a definition. But then again the tribunal would be left with words to consider. No doubt a statute may contain a definition which incidentally often creates more problems than it solves but the purpose of a definition is to limit or modify the ordinary meaning of a word and the Court is not entitled to do that."
"The easiest word, whatever it may be, can never be translated into one more easy."
CONCLUSION