The filthy scenes in a protected area caused by the firm that gave Vaughan Gething £200k

Pictures reveal the damage done by Cardiff company who gave £200,000 to the First Minister in an area designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of its environmental value.

In May 2013, at Cardiff Magistrates' Court, David John Neal, Atlantic Recycling Limited and Neal Soil Suppliers Limited were fined and ordered to pay costs of over £200,000 after pleading guilty to charges of failing to comply with conditions of an environmental permit, keeping controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution/harm to human health.

The site where they did this was at Ty-To Maen Farm on Newton Road in the Rumney area of the Welsh capital, which is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The site is part of the Rumney and Peterstone SSSI, one of six SSSIs covering the edge of the Severn Estuary. It is protected because of its wetland plants and insects that Natural Resources Wales says are becoming increasingly uncommon.

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Natural Resources Wales says it wants to see sites maintained so they support plants including water plantain, with its delicate white flowers, pondweeds and floating leaf plants supporting populations of dragonflies, damselflies and other insects which in turn provide food for birds such as swifts and swallows.

Atlantic Recycling Limited and David John Neal were issued with a court order to remove wastes from the site in 2013, and Mr Neal was given a £10,000 fine and ordered to pay costs of £200,000 after the court heard that toxic liquids had leached into the water courses at the site. A judge called it "substantial and serious pollution".

However the companies failed to comply with the legal notice to remove waste from part of the site at Ty-To Maen Farm, and failed to take any significant steps or provide adequate plans to improve operations at the sites.

Natural Resources Wales issued Atlantic Recycling with an enforcement notice to remove the waste which was not being stored correctly at the site. Instead of being stored securely inside a building in line with the conditions within its environmental permit, the waste was found to be stored in an area outside, with no infrastructure to prevent pollutants from entering the environment.

Residents at the time told WalesOnline that this was doing "environmental damage for the land it is stored on, not to mention flies and rats".

Four years later, Mr Neal was fined a further £30,000 and given an 18-week suspended prison sentence for failing to comply with the legal notices or to provide adequate plans to improve his operations. His companies were also fined £130,000 and ordered to pay £50,000 in costs. A spokesperson for Natural Resources Wales at the time said that Mr Neal "continues to show a lack of respect for the rules we enforce and for the health of the environment".

The following pictures relate to that 2017 prosecution for storing waste illegally that NRW brought against the company:

Mr Neal and his associated companies have donated heavily to the First Minister Vaughan Gething. Mr Gething accepted donations adding up £80,000 in 2018 from Mr Neal's companies just a year after this prosecution and accepted a further £200,000 last winter as part of his bid to become First Minister.

The same day the company made the most recent donation they also applied to build a solar farm on a site nearby that will need Welsh Government approval. The company also received £400,000 in loans from the Welsh Government owned Development Bank of Wales (which Mr Gething was responsible at the time).