Mobile crushers are an increasingly important contribution to reducing the amount of construction waste going to landfill as old material can be re-used.
The use of mobile crushers is covered under the Local Authority Pollution Prevention Control regime and specific guidance is laid out in the Secretary of State’s Guidance Note for mobile crushing and screening.
It is a requirement of the guidance that whenever mobile plant is in use at a site, visual assessments of emissions shall be undertaken on start up and on at least two more occasions each day. The operator shall keep a record of inspections with the mobile plant at all times. Records shall be kept for a minimum of two years and shall be made available upon request from a Local Authority inspector. An example of a log book can be downloaded as a pdf document.
Risk based fees and charges have now been extended to mobile plant and the Secretary of State’s Guidance has been amended by AQNote 01(09) to require that a record of maintenance should be made available for inspection, and a summary of maintenance carried out in the previous 12 months should be sent to the local authority once a year by the operator or the hire company, whichever has responsibility for maintaining the plant. The log book example may also be adapted for this purpose. A summary of maintenance should be sent to the Council by the 31st March each year. Failure to do so could result in a higher score rating and higher subsistence charge costs.