Owner behind £1m tyre blaze that burned for days and shut down schools jailed

The owner of a waste tyre business has been jailed after a mammoth fire broke out at one of his sites, which caused mass disruption across the city.

At the height of blaze at an illegal waste tyre dump near Bradford city centre in November 2020, up to 100 firefighters from across West Yorkshire were involved in trying to put it out. The huge fire burned for several days and caused extensive disruption to nearby schools, businesses, homes and transport services.

Today (Tues) 62-year-old Stuart Bedford, of Fairfax Avenue, Harrogate, was jailed for a year after he ignored repeated warnings from the Environment Agency and the Fire Service about the potential risks at the former go-karting site in Spring Mill Street and a similar illegal waste tyre business he also ran at Wright Business Park in Doncaster.

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The court heard it was estimated that Bedford, who had experience of the waste tyre business, had amassed nearly one million used tyres across the two sites and at one stage he had valued his stock at the Bradford site as being worth £1 million.

But prosecutor Joseph Millington said the relevant agencies were becoming increasingly concerned about the Bradford site where there were huge piles of precariously stacked tyres being stored. Mr Millington said similar activities were taking place at the Doncaster site where he said “the building was stuffed with tyres”.

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Despite the service of so-called “stop letters” Judge Jonathan Gibson said Bedford’s efforts to improve the situation at the sites had been “woefully inadequate” and in November 2020 a major incident was declared when the Bradford site caught fire.

Mr Millington said the Fire Service costs alone in dealing with the massive blaze were put at just over £1m. Thousands of pupils had their education affected due to the closure of nearby schools and there was significant disruption to rail and road links.

Bedford appeared in court alongside his wife Vicky, but Judge Gibson said she was effectively “a straw director” of their company. Vicky Bedford, 51, of Fairgrey Close, Ripon, was today made the subject of a 12-month community order for her role in the offending.

The pair had both admitted charges of operating an unauthorised regulated facility in relation to both sites and keeping controlled waste, namely tyres, in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment and harm to human health.

Judge Gibson said the tyres were being stored in a manner that made firefighting difficult and he paid tribute to the valiant efforts of the fire crews during his sentencing remarks.

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“The cost to the public of the whole response effort was enormous, “ the judge told the defendants.

He said he had no doubt that Stuart Bedford had deliberately breached the law and he had been reckless within the true meaning of that word. The judge said he had been well aware of the fire risks and had gone ahead with storing the tyres regardless.

In deciding on the length of the jail sentence Judge Gibson said he took account of the defendant’s personal mitigation including a psychological report.