Mobuoy Dump company goes into insolvency

City Industrial Waste Limited, one of the two companies responsible for the Mobuoy Dump scandal, has gone into insolvency. 

The company, which had a registered office at Recycling Centre, 60, Mobuoy Road, Campsie, on the outskirts of Derry, was wound up on the order of the North’s High Court of Justice on May 8, 2025. 

According to the official court documentation, winding up was done on the petition of The Department of Finance of Land and Property Services (Rating), presented to the Court on March 10, 2025. 

The document said: “Upon hearing the Solicitor for the Petitioning Creditor, and upon reading the evidence, it is ordered that City Industrial Waste Limited be wound up by this court under the provisions of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989. The Official Receiver is by virtue of this order liquidator of the Company.”

A notice to this effect has subsequently been published in a local newspaper by the Official Receiver. 

The British Government’s Company Information Service lists Gerry Farmer, with the above address as the active secretary of City Industrial Waste Limited. It also lists Gerry Martin Farmer, with a different correspondence address, as an active director in the company. Between 2003 and 2022, three other listed directors resigned from City Industrial Waste Limited.

A court hearing on September 16, 2022, City Industrial Waste Limited and director, Gerry Farmer (53), with an address at Westlake, outside Derry, pled guilty to three waste offences each with regards to controlled waste identified on lands located on the Mobuoy Road.

The charges against Gerry Farmer were: depositing controlled waste, or knowingly causing or knowingly permitting controlled waste to be deposited on any land except and under and in accordance with a waste management licence;

Keeping controlled waste, or knowingly causing or knowingly permitting controlled waste to be kept on any land except and under and in accordance with a waste management licence;

And, keeping controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution to the Environment or harm to human health.

The charges against City Industrial Waste Limited were: depositing controlled waste, or knowingly causing or knowingly permitting controlled waste to be deposited on any land except and under and in accordance with a waste management licence;

Keeping controlled waste, or knowingly causing or knowingly permitting controlled waste to be kept on any land except and under and in accordance with a waste management licence;

And, keeping controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution to the Environment or harm to human health.

What has become known as the Mobuoy Dump comprises two parcels of land - the City Industrial Waste Limited site and the Campsie Sand and Gravel site; it occupies an area of approximately 46 hectares. 

Previous waste management activities on the City Industrial Waste Limited site included a landfill site regulated by the local council. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) issued a closure notice for this landfill site in 2007. 

A former materials recycling facility also operated on this site between 2004 and 2013; its Waste Management Licence was revoked by NIEA in June 2013 and the site subsequently closed. 

The River Faughan forms the western boundary of the Mobuoy Dump. This stretch of the river is designated as an Area of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation that supports an Atlantic Salmon population of international importance.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the City Industrial Waste Limited site and the Campsie Sand and Gravel site were both subject to illegal waste disposal activities. 

In response, the Department of the Environment (DOE), now the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), instigated a review of waste disposal activities at the Mobuoy Dump site. 

This review, known as the Mills Review was titled: A Review of Waste Disposal at the Mobuoy site and the lessons learnt for the future regulation of the waste industry in Northern Ireland.

In November 2015, the estimated volume of controlled waste illegally disposed of at the Mobuoy Dump was reported to be a minimum of 913,105 m3. 

An additional estimate of 252,050 m3 of controlled waste is present in the area of the former licensed landfill, some of which has been deposited illegally. 

The nature of the illegal deposits includes municipal waste, construction and demolition waste, and municipal waste mixed with construction and demolition waste. 

The Mobuoy Stakeholder Group was established by NIEA in 2015 in response to community concerns arising from the significant illegal waste disposal at the site and its potential impacts on the River Faughan, health and the surrounding environment.

The NIEA is now seeking to carry out early engagement with a wide range of industry stakeholders, including but not limited to those involved in the delivery of groundworks, soil and water remediation, waste and landfill gas management. 

The purpose of this engagement is to allow the industry to put forward information to NIEA and its appointed Integrated Consultant Team on emerging remedial methods, technologies or techniques that could be employed as part of the remediation of the Mobuoy Dump site. 

DAERA described the objective of this engagement as assisting NIEA with the “development of the Optimum Remediation Strategy for the site”.

DAERA added: “A comprehensive environmental monitoring programme is in place at the Mobuoy site.

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“Prior to remediation, the environmental impacts of the waste deposits are closely monitored to assess any impact to the water environment through a comprehensive Environmental Monitoring Programme ”.

The Department also stated: “The protection of wildlife and ecology on the Mobuoy site is an important aspect of the Mobuoy Remediation Project, particularly given the environmental designation of the River Faughan as an Area of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation.

“Since the appointment of the Integrated Consultancy Team (ICT) in June 2021, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, along with ICT ecology specialists, have been building a knowledge base of wildlife and ecology that has become established on the Mobuoy site by carrying out ecological surveys.”