Farmer fined for failing to finish alternative to conviction

A 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 Court 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.

Dog walk leads to pollution discovery

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.

Promise made to avoid conviction is broken

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. This led to the agency charging him with a criminal offence instead.

Chris Westcott, an Environment Agency agriculture team leader, 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 this hearing.

Background

The charge:

On 19 January 2019 you, Mark Pearson, did cause an unpermitted water discharge activity, namely the discharge of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter from Hanford Farm, Hanford, Blandford in Dorset, into inland fresh waters contrary to Regulations 12(1)(b) and Regulation 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.