A Somerset cheese-making company has been fined over £23,700 for a third case of causing pollution from its farm.
Alvis Brothers Ltd makes Lye Cross Farm cheeses and supplies supermarket chains Waitrose, Ocado and Asda.
The company, of Lye Cross Farm, Redhill, Bristol, admitted a charge of causing discharge of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs totalling £3,520.20 and a victim surcharge of £190.
Bristol magistrates heard on Friday (November 10) that Alvis Brothers Ltd had similar offences from 2013 and 2019.
District Judge Matthews said that this was another case of the company failing to self-report a pollution incident to the Environment Agency because “they hope to get away with pollution incidents”.
She ordered the farm operations director, Nick Green, to tell the court under oath how many times the company had self-reported a pollution incident, to which he replied “zero.”
Following the court hearing, senior environment officer, Jo Masters said: “This is the third time Alvis Brothers Limited has been prosecuted since 2015 for polluting the watercourse.
“We strive to work with farmers to prevent pollution through advice and guidance, but we are clear we will take action where offending is repeated and offenders aren’t willing to change their practices to ensure environmental protection.”
Pollution
The court heard that in September 2020, following reports of white discolouration in a watercourse, Environment Agency officers went to a tributary of the Congresbury Yeo, downstream of Lye Cross Farm.
The watercourse was discovered to be milky both in colour and odour.
The source of the pollution was found to have been caused by a blockage in a pipe that took wash water from company’s cheese production facility to its onsite treatment works which had subsequently overflowed to the watercourse.
The blockage had consisted of a plastic bag containing gloves and other plastic.
In a later interview under caution, Green, on behalf of the company, admitted the offence and said the company was sorry and pointed out the measures taken after they became aware of the pollution spill to mitigate the effect on the watercourse.
The Environment Agency maintained in court that the materials that caused the blockage were everyday items clearly “inappropriately disposed of”.
