Blandford Forum, Crime, Eco & Environment | Posted on November 25th, 2024 | return to news
Dorset farmer fined for failing to fix slurry pollution
A farmer in Hanford was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay a further £4,000 for allowing slurry to enter a freshwater stream.
A farmer in Hanford near Blandford Forum who repeatedly failed to prevent slurry from his farm polluting a nearby freshwater stream has been fined £2,500 after the Environment Agency brought a case against him.
Mark Pearson, aged 64, owner and senior partner of Hanford Farm, appeared in Taunton Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 20 November following an earlier hearing where he admitted to an offence of causing pollution to enter a freshwater stream. In addition to the fine, the magistrates ordered him to pay £4,007.20 in costs, plus a victim surcharge of £170.
The case related to an incident in January 2019 when the pollution was discovered by Environment Agency officer who was out walking his dog and noticed what appeared to be slurry in a stream. He traced the runoff to a at Hanford Farm and took photographs as evidence. In a later interview, Pearson admitted that slurry spreading at the farm had caused the pollution.
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.
However, Pearson failed to do the necessary work. The Environment Agency contacted him several times, but no date was secured for the completion of a slurry lagoon, which was a condition of the Enforcement Undertaking. This led the Agency to decide to charge him with a criminal offence instead.
The Magistrates’ Court was told that there had been seven previous pollution incidents involving Pearson’s farm since 2012.
The Environment Agency’s Chris Westcott, team leader for agriculture, said: “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.”
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