Firm hit by EU penalty

A SAWTRY company is disputing a penalty of nearly £20,000 imposed under new EU environmental regulations. Swedish-owned ScandStick (UK) Limited, which moved to the village from Little Paxton just over a year ago, was issued a civil penalty of €29,160 (£19

A SAWTRY company is disputing a penalty of nearly £20,000 imposed under new EU environmental regulations.

Swedish-owned ScandStick (UK) Limited, which moved to the village from Little Paxton just over a year ago, was issued a civil penalty of €29,160 (£19,619) for failing to surrender sufficient carbon emission allowances under the new EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

Companies are allocated an allowance and can buy additional allowances from other companies or sell allowances they do not need. The EA says ScandStick, which manufactures adhesive products, failed to surrender sufficient allowances to cover 729 of the 1,948 tonnes of carbon it was verified as letting into the atmosphere.

It was one of only four out of 535 large industrial companies in England and Wales to trigger the €40-a-tonne penalties. ScandStick's penalty was the lowest of the four.

Spokesman Kevin Palmer said the company strongly disputed the penalty, which applied to the former Samuel Jones site in Little Paxton in 2005. "It's very complicated, and I can't really say any more at the moment. The Environment Agency is not the easiest organisation to deal with."

The scheme was introduced to help control industrial emissions to achieve targets agreed under the Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The UK has agreed to cut emissions by 12.5 per cent by 2010.