Oyston fined for dumping waste from stand

The Blackpool chairman, Karl Oyston, and two of his companies were yesterday fined more than £40,000 for illegally dumping waste from the building of the club's Jimmy Armfield Stand.

Hundreds of tonnes of rubble – including concrete, plastic and wood – were found at Whyndyke Farm. Oyston, 45, said he had believed only soil was being dumped. As a director of Promenade Construction Ltd and Closelink Ltd, he appeared at Blackpool magistrates court and admitted he had consented to the two companies tipping waste on the land one of them owned, without a permit. Oyston pleaded guilty to two breaches of laws made to protect the environment.