A?HOUSING developer has been ordered to pay more than £13,400 in fines and costs after sewage escaped from new homes and polluted a stream close to the Tamar Valley.

The Environment Agency prosecuted Barratt Homes after waste from 84 homes at Kelly Bray overflowed from a collection chamber. Sewage from the properties is stored in holding tanks before being pumped to a South West Water gravity sewer prior to treatment.

Barratt Homes (Exeter Division) was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £3,448 costs by Bodmin magistrates after pleading guilty to causing noxious or polluting matter to enter controlled waters between August 31, 2009 and September 11, last year.