A national pub and hotel chain was ordered to pay£10,490 in fines and costs after untreated sewage effluent fromone of its inns flowed into a prime Dorset river. The case wasbrought by the Environment Agency.
Routine monitoring at the Bridge House Hotel at Longham nearFerndown by the Agency on January 17 this year revealed cloudyeffluent with a septic smell.
Checks of the sewage plant by an Agency environment protectionofficer confirmed that it was not operating and the sewage effluentwas not being treated before being released into the River Stour.Sewage fungus was growing around the broken outlet pipe to the river.
Today magistrates at Wareham heard Old English Inns Plc of CastleHouse, 21/23 Station Road, New Barnet, Hertfordshire plead guilty tocausing polluting matter to enter the River Stour contrary to Section85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £490costs for the offence.
“There have been problems with the sewage plant at this hotelbefore and there was concern with its continued poor performance,”said David Womack for the Environment Agency.
“The Stour is a valuable salmon and coarse fish river and it isimportant that water quality is protected. Dischargers have aresponsibility to ensure their effluent meets prescribed standards atall times.”
The Environment Agency’s free 24 hour incident hotline is 0800 8070 60.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk
