TC09644 ****** - [2025] UKFTT 01121 (TC)

Mr Young was called as a witness of fact, not as an expert witness (no direction was applied for him to give expert evidence). He provided no witness statement but a report, which he adopted as his evidence in chief. We find his written report to lack detail and be largely assertive: it does not describe the methodology employed. It provides no details of any site visits, when they were conducted, and what was observed. Furthermore, on the face of the report it appeared contradictory: not explaining how it claimed 80 per cent of the waste was removed which did not appear to tally with the calculations in the report.

Mr Young elaborated in somewhat more detail in his oral evidence as to the methodology he employed. He referred to trial pits and the use of GPS. However he was vague as to what he actually did and where. In his closing submissions Mr McNamee suggested that Mr Young had followed Officer Blair’s measurements – we find no basis for that on the evidence. Similarly, in closing Mr McNamee mentioned that Mr Young’s report was filed at the last minute due to personal difficulties Mr Young was experiencing and that accounted for the lack of detail. Closing submissions are not to give evidence, and those submissions were not based on evidence. We place no weight on them.

We also note that Mr Young’s report, dated 7 July 2025, was based on inspections in June 2025. Accordingly it is of little assistance in determining what waste was located on the sites on 1 April 2018.

Overall, we did not find Mr Young an impressive witness. We approach his evidence with great caution.