A SCRAP metal company which admitted flouting waste control regulations, hopes to win official approval to dump at the site in coming months.

Cornforth Metals Ltd pleaded guilty to four charges of breaching the regulations, between July 1998 and August 1999, at a hearing at Durham Crown Court last year.

But Graeme Ernest Brown, described in court as the "de-facto manager", denied four further offences of keeping controlled waste without a licence, and knowingly permitting controlled waste to be deposited without a licence, in West Cornforth, County Durham.

Mr Brown returned to court yesterday when the hearing was told that Cornforth Metals is taking steps to "regularise the situation", by attempting to earn a waste management licence from the Environment Agency.

Graham Duff, prosecuting for the agency, said a draft application has now been lodged for a licence, "in a form which is capable of being processed".

The hearing was adjourned until May