Pollution sanction sees environment charity receive a funding boost  

A housing construction company and its contracted engineers will donate £135,000 to the Aire Rivers Trust after polluting Pitty Beck multiple times while building a new housing estate near Bradford.

Doncaster-headquartered Keepmoat Homes Ltd, which owns the site at Heron’s Reach near Bradford, will donate £100,000, while Applebridge Construction Ltd, which were contracted by Keepmoat Homes for the first phase of the development, will donate £35,000.

An investigation by the Environment Agency found Pitty Beck was polluted a number of times between October 2016 and November 2018 while construction was underway.

The companies submitted Enforcement Undertakings to the Environment Agency, which have now been accepted.

An Enforcement Undertaking is a voluntary offer made by companies and individuals to make amends for their offending, and usually includes a donation to an environmental charity to carry out improvements in the local area.

On 13 October 2016 Keepmoat Homes reported pollution from its site, and an Environment Agency officer confirmed silty water was running from the site and into the beck.

The same happened on numerous occasions over subsequent months. The company did not have an environmental permit to allow for treated water to be discharged into the beck.

The company obtained this permit in October 2017. This allowed the discharge of water from one outlet at a maximum rate of no more than 40mg/l of suspended solids.

Only days later, a discharge containing 555 mg/l entered the beck from a different outlet, followed by the first of several permit breaches from the permitted outlet containing more than the allowed concentration of suspended solids.

As part of the requirements of the Enforcement Undertaking, Keepmoat Homes revised its surface water management plan for the site, constructed urban drainage ponds, purchased a siltbuster and gulley bags to remove sediment from the water leaving site and improved its inspection and monitoring regime.

Applebridge Construction employed a full time health and safety manager, reviewed and updated its environmental management system and delivered bespoke training to staff.

Environment Agency area environment manager, Ben Hocking, said: “Housing construction companies – like all companies carrying out any major development work – have a responsibility to ensure their work does not impact on the environment and we will take action when pollution occurs.

“While we will always take forward prosecutions in appropriate cases, Enforcement Undertakings are an effective enforcement tool to allow companies to put things right and contribute to environmental improvements.

“They allow polluters to restore the harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents by improving their training and procedures.”

Aire Rivers Trust will spend the donations on the monitoring and prevention of pollution on Bradford Beck, a “pocket park” proposal for the beck and on restoring natural habitats.

Simon Watts, operations manager at the trust, said: “We’re pleased to see money from polluters being spent on restoring Bradford’s streams and river.

“We believe the work it will fund will create a lasting impact on the health of the beck that runs through the heart of Bradford.”

Chris Clingo, acting regional managing director at Keepmoat, Yorkshire West, responded: “After being made aware of the pollution to Pitty Beck during the construction of Heron’s Reach in 2018, we voluntarily submitted Enforcement Undertakings to the Environment Agency during the same year, to take action as quickly as possible.

“I am very pleased that the Environment Agency has accepted the Undertakings and we are now funding the cleaning of Pitty Beck.

“Since 2018, we have put in place strict measures to ensure this does not happen again, including implementing robust water management plans across our developments, constructing urban drainage ponds where needed, and improving our inspection and monitoring regime.

“We are committed to building sustainable communities that do not harm our natural environment.

“We hope the funds we’ve donated are being well spent on restoring the health of the beck for today’s local community and future generations.”