Devon farm fined over £4k for polluting watercourse with slurry

Bycott Farm Ltd of Halberton, Devon, has been fined a total of £4,300 for charges related to polluting a watercourse with slurry.

The company was also ordered to pay costs totalling £1,765 and a victim surcharge of £190 for two charges including an incident of disposal of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause environmental pollution or harm human health.

Exeter Magistrates Court heard that, in October 2021, Environment Agency officers found that a ditch leading to a tributary of a Spratford stream was polluted and they traced the source to a pipe discharging into the ditch and also dirty water flowing across a nearby field.