Poultry firm is fined £75,000 for pollution

From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Thursday 15th Aug 2002.

POULTRY processing firm Faccenda Group has been fined £75,000 for polluting the River Avon from its factory in Sutton Benger.

Faccenda Group Ltd (South) admitted all five offences with which the firm was charged and was fined £15,000 for each by Chippenham magistrates on Monday. The firm was also ordered to pay £3,180 costs.

During a four-month period between August 10, 2001 and November 7, 2001 pollution levels in effluent from the factory were found to be well above the legal limit.

On one occasion environmental officers recorded levels of suspended solids, in the water at 50 times the maximum legal limit. The solids have a have a smothering effect on aquatic life.

The contamination was discovered by two fishermen from Swindon, Kevin Lovegrove and Paul Revell.

At 5.30am on August 2 last year they went to a stretch of the river at Christian Malford popular with fishermen and noticed the water under the B4069 road bridge had turned orange.

Mr Lovegrove reported the incident to the Environment Agency.

An investigation found sludge pumped from the effluent treatment works into the river was responsible.

The court heard that a fault in a pump was to blame. It had caused the system to overload and a valve had failed.

Officers reported that the treatment plant owned by Faccenda Group Ltd (South) was in a very poor condition and there was inadequate staff training and cover to run it properly.

There was a second pollution incident reported on the same day in the Sutton Benger Brook.

That was traced to a fracture in the pipeline carrying treated effluent from the processing plant to the River Avon

In a bid to control the problem Faccenda hired tankers to take the sludge off the site. In total, 694 loads were taken from the plant at a cost of £320 a load.

Simon Rundle, for the prosecution, said Faccenda had known that the final settlement tanks were too small for the effluent flow but, in spite of this, chicken processing at the plant grew from 410,000 to 500,000 birds a week.

"The company was fully aware that the plant could not handle that capacity and that there could be a problem if they persisted," Mr Rundle told the court.

Officers were called out again on August 10 and September 4 and found levels of the poison ammonia up to four times over the legal limit and water pollution twice the legal limit.

Faccenda blamed a chemical leak which had stopped the sludge being treated properly.

The company, which employs more than 500 people, took over the plant in December 2000 from Webbs Country Food Ltd. It declined to comment.

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