A SKIP hire boss is facing prosecution accused of running an illegal waste yard on land a few hundred metres from an RSPB bird reserve.

Glen Davis, 46, of Southend Road, Wickford, has been charged with two offences by the Environment Agency in connection with the use of land at Marsh Farm, Vange.

Davis, who runs Sunshine Skips, is accused of running a waste site on the land off the A13 without a required permit between March 19 and June 20 2013.

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View: Marsh Farm (ringed left) about 500 metres from edge of reserve (ringed right). Image Google Earth

The agency has also charged him with an offence that between June 18 and November 15 the same year he failed to comply with a duty of care to stop other people committing waste offences on the land.

Davis, who has since dissolved the skip firm and before that ran a building company, is due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates Court later this month.

Marsh Farm is around 500 metres from the Vange and Fobbing Marsh site of special scientific interest which supports rare wading birds the avocet and black tailed godwit.