£100,000 fine for construction firm over residential development
HOUSEBUILDERS have been fined more than £100,000 following a pollution incident at a residential development in Huddersfield.
The development at Lindley Park was plagued by pollution issues. Environment officers said neither of the construction firms involved, Miller Homes or Flannery Civil Engineering, had permission to get rid of silt water into nearby watercourses.
Silt and sediment filled a water discharge into the Grimescar Dyke watercourse form the construction site in November 2013.
Flannery had been contracted to reduce flooding downstream, using straw bales to prevent silt leaving the site. After heavy rain, the bales were removed allowing the area to drain, and taking silt with it downstream.
Edinburgh-based Miller Homes appeared at Leeds Crown Court last week over the incident. The company was also ordered to pay £2,901.03 in costs.
The company admitted one environmental offence, as did Flannery Civil Engineering Ltd of Castleford, which was fined £9,000 by Kirklees Magistrates’ Court in March after admitting a similar charge over the same incident.
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency, said after the case: “Miller Homes should have had more effective water management systems on the construction site to prevent the silty runoff from affecting local watercourses.”
Miller Homes said they immediately improved the lagoon system following the incident. The firm added that it had achieved an accreditation for environmental standards,and that their board of directors had been “apoplectic” that the problem had not been reported to the Environment Agency or even themselves at the time.
