Dairy Crest in court after guilty plea for waste discharges

A creamery in Cornwall is being sentenced after it discharged waste from one of its sites into a river - causing unpleasant odours for residents living nearby and killing a large number of fish.

Dairy Crest, which produces the well-known Cathedral City cheddar cheese, appeared at Truro Crown Court on Thursday, May 26 and Friday, May 27 having entered guilty pleas to 21 counts relating to pollution charges as well as breaches of of environmental permits.

The pollution offences took place at the Dairy Crest-owned Davidstow Creamery where waste was discharged into the River Inny and caused the death of a large number of fish.

The company also pleaded guilty to environmental permit breaches by waiting over a month to inform the Environment Agency about the waste discharges as well as breaching odour permits, with residents in the area being subjected to pungent smells from its waste water treatment plant.

At the sentencing, the court heard from the defence how Dairy Crest "was a company with no previous convictions" and had "never been convicted of any environmental offences."

The defence also spoke about how the company had taken over its waste treatment plant in 2016 from another company and had also gone "out of its way to secure a contract to ensure the waste water plant was working properly."

The company's defence said that they were told that the equipment they were using would do it.