A row has erupted after a Dundee refuge company dumped more than 100 bags of commercial rubbish in a restaurant’s car park over a contractual dispute.
Dundee Waste Management has been accused of fly-tipping by the owners of Doc Stewart’s, by The Downfield restaurant after staff arrived on Thursday morning to find large piles of waste dumped overnight.
The two firms are in dispute over claims of unpaid invoices and allegations of poor service.
‘Illegal dumping’
Owner Scott Townshend branded the dumping “ridiculous” and confirmed he had now reported the waste management firm to the local authority for illegal dumping and breaches of data protection laws, claiming the rubbish from a string of other Dundee businesses and not Doc Stewart’s.
“We got an email from Dundee Waste Management threatening to return our rubbish despite the dispute being a civil matter being dealt with through solicitors but we didn’t expect it to happen,” said Scott.
“It’s ridiculous.
“I had to send staff up to our business in Arbroath to block off the car park there in case more rubbish was dumped.
“None of the bags of rubbish were actually ours, but from other businesses that have paid to have their waste properly managed.
“Due to data protection laws I had to contact at least eight firms across Dundee because of the sensitive documents we found, which included bank details and other private information.
“I also had to pay to have the fly tipping removed so our customers could use our restaurant.”
‘Absolutely diabolical’
However, Dundee Waste Management has refuted claims they have acted unlawfully, saying that it was returning the restaurant’s rubbish due to a dispute over the alleged non payment of bills.
Symon Hayter, 33, owner of Dundee Waste Management, which he set up in July 2020, said: “We’ve had notorious issues with Doc Stewart’s. We were collecting their waste for about six months.
“Then, they wanted to terminate the contract early, which we were happy to do, but they didn’t want to buy out what was left of the contract, which is standard business practice.
“The condition of their rubbish was absolutely diabolical.
“Everything is mixed in together – there’s glass, general waste, food, and recycling all mixed in together.
“We simply notified them since they were not paying for the waste that had been collected, at least the last collection, we decided to return their waste to them.
“We notified SEPA beforehand to ensure we weren’t breaking the law and they were satisfied that as long as we have documentation that proved we had notified them of all the issues we’d had with payment, and we’d notified them that intend to return the waste, which we did.”
Responding to claims that the rubbish belongs to other businesses and not the restaurant, Mr Hayter said that it was “possible one or two waste bags have been included in error”, but added that he could prove the rest of the waste dumped originated from the Dundee pub.
Both Dundee City Council and Police Scotland said they were not aware of the incident.