Dorset farmer fined after slurry enters a stream
The pollution discovered by an Environment Agency officer out walking his dog
A Dorset farmer who didn’t comply with an alternative penalty to conviction after slurry polluted a stream has been fined £2,500.
Mark Pearson, aged 64, owner and senior partner of Hanford Farm, Hanford near Blandford appeared before Taunton magistrates yesterday after admitting an offence of causing pollution to enter a freshwater stream at an earlier court hearing. In addition to the £2,500 fine, he was ordered to pay £4,007.20 costs, plus a victim surcharge of £170.
In a case brought by the Environment Agency, the court heard that an Agency officer out walking his dog in January 2019 noticed what appeared to be slurry in a stream. He traced the runoff to a field at Hanford Farm and took photographs as evidence. In a later interview, Pearson admitted that slurry spreading at the farm had caused the pollution.
Magistrates were told there had been seven previous pollution incidents involving the farm since 2012 and, despite the need to have five months’ slurry storage facilities, there was only two months’ storage at the farm.
Pearson agreed to an Enforcement Undertaking – an alternative penalty to formal court proceedings – and he paid a contribution to the National Trust of £2,000 as a result. Yet, while the Environment Agency contacted him several times, no date was secured for the completion of a slurry lagoon, which was also a condition of the Enforcement Undertaking, leading to the Agency charging him with a criminal offence instead.
Chris Westcott, Team Leader Agriculture, from the Environment Agency said following the hearing: “Enforcement Undertakings provide an opportunity for polluters to pay for environmental projects as an alternative to court proceedings. Though Mr Pearson was offered the opportunity to avoid a criminal conviction, he chose to ignore that leading to today’s hearing.”