A WEST Devon farmer has been ordered by pay more than £23,000 in costs and fines after he pleaded guilty at Exeter Magistrates Court to three charges relating to pollution.
The Environment Agency served two legal notices on Richard Piers Brendon, of Great Bidlake Farm, Bridestowe, in February last year, requiring him to empty his slurry store, bring it up to standard and improve the farm's dirty water system.
The notices followed a prosecution for farm waste pollution which occurred in December 1999.
Magistrates were told the Agency used such notices to enforce improvements to systems which posed a high risk of pollution. At Great Bidlake, the work should have been completed by October 15, 2000.
But the court heard neither notice was complied with and pollution of a tributary of the River Lew occurred on January 26, 2001. Slurry leaked from the store and flowed across fields into the stream, which was discoloured brown and was foamy with effluent.
Mr Brendon pleaded guilty to failing to comply with an anti-pollution works notice contrary to the Anti Pollution Works Regulations 1999 and for using a store not built to standards required in the Control of Pollution Regulations 1991.
He was fined £8,000 for the first offence and £2,000 for the second. He was also fined £10,000 for allowing polluting matter to enter a water-course, plus £3,431 costs.
Lisa Pinney for the Environment Agency said Mr Brendon had shown 'complete disregard for the environment'.
'Farm waste and slurry can be extremely damaging if it gets into water, putting fish and other river life at risk,' she said.
After the trial, Michael Butler, Mr Brendon's solicitor, said Mr Brendon would be appealing against the magistrates' decision.
'It is felt the sentence was excessive, doesn't reflect the reality of the situation and was out of all proportion with the level of pollution actually caused,' he said.