Davidstow creamery fined £1.5m for environmental offences
The pollution caused significant harm to fish and wildlife
One of UK's largest cheese suppliers has been fined £1.5 million after a series of pollution offences at a creamery near Camelford.
According to the Environment Agency, the performance of Dairy Crest Limited, owned by Saputo Dairy UK, has been unacceptable for too long and efforts on the environment need to significantly improve.
It has been fined a total of £1.52 million at Truro Crown Court on Thursday, pleading guilty to 21 out of 27 charges between 2016 to last year.
The Environment Agency brought the charges forward after a number of cases where effluent was discharged into the River Inny from the Davidstow site, proving challenging to treat and causing significant harm to fish and other wildlife.
The Court heard Dairy Crest Limited and its management of the Davidstow Creamery in north Cornwall has been falling short of the standards expected by the Environment Agency including the company’s management of liquid waste, odour and environmental reporting.
It also heard the issue of foul odours which have affected lives of local residents.
When delivering the sentence, Judge Simon Carr expressed the view that he had not seen consistent performance evidenced by the company over a five-year period.
Judge Carr said he had been ‘moved’ when reading testimony from residents whose lives had been ‘blighted’ by odours.
Helen Dobby, Area Director of the Environment Agency, said: “As a large and well-established operator, Dairy Crest Limited should be up to the job of maintaining the required environmental standards. Instead, it has over a period of many years failed to comply with its environmental permit and not been able to protect local people and the environment.
“We acknowledge that Dairy Crest Limited has been taking steps to remedy the various problems, but unfortunately, these actions were not swift enough on many occasions and proved to be ineffective in stopping pollution.”
The Environment Agency has reported to be deeply concerned about the environmental performance of this site and its impact on the environment, continuing to monitor the situation and site closely to protect wildlife and people in Cornwall.
The site had already paid costs of £272,746.