The recycling centre, which was the scene of a massive fire for several weeks, had been banned from accepting anymore wood on the site due to health and safety concerns a month before the blaze.

The fire at the wood recycling centre, in Appspond Lane broke out just after midnight on Saturday, November 10 after around 10,000 tons of wood became ablaze.

The Environment Agency issued enforcement notices to the operators of the site in May and July because they had not complied with their environmental permits.

Ash Dobson, from the Environment Agency, confirmed one of the enforcement notices required them to reduce the amount of wood waste on site to less than 10,000 tonnes and deadlines were not met by the centre.

In September this year suspension notices were also handed over to the recycling centre for both of the site operator’s environmental permits to manage the risk of heat, fire and serious pollution.

The suspension notice stopped the recycling centre from accepting any further compost or wood waste on to the site.