A Newcastle company was fined £15,000 at Newcastle Upon Tyne Magistrates Court last week for a pollution offence at Dewley Burn.

Ibstock Brick, whose registered address is Leicester Road, Ibstock, Leicestershire, LE67 6HS, and who trade at Throckley Industrial Estate, Ponteland Road, Throckley, Newcastle Upon Tyne, were also ordered to pay full costs of £1,382.24, which brought the case.

Paul Harley, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that, following reports of pollution at Dewley Burn, an Environment Agency officer attended the site on 26 February 2007.

He discovered that the watercourse was heavily polluted with clay slurry for several hundred metres downstream of a culvert which emerged from below Ibstock Brick’s work. On the same day the officer met with Ibstock’s factory manager Paul Davison to inspect the company’s site. The pollution was found to be coming from an onsite chamber linked by a pipe to the culvert. It was stated that the company had previously blocked the pipe with a bung which was now missing.

The court was told that the pollution had a major impact on the ecology of the watercourse and had greatly reduced the number and type of wildlife. Ibstock Brick had two previous convictions for polluting watercourses at the same site, both of which occurred within a month. In November 2003 they pleaded guilty to permitting diesel fuel to enter controlled watercourses and were fined £10,000. On the same day they were also fined £5,000 for permitting clay silt to enter controlled waters. The court was told that the defendants were aware of the potential for further similar incidents and yet had no system of regular inspections of the problem area.

The magistrates said that Ibstock were aware of the potential problems, that they were a very large company and had a responsibility to the environment at their site. The pollution readings were very high and the company’s two previous convictions had happened within a short period of time. It was a very serious matter and consequently the £15,000 fine was at an appropriate level.

In mitigation it was said that the company had not acted deliberately and had since taken steps to put the problem right. They had co-operated with the Environment Agency and put in an early guilty plea.

Neil Affleck of the Environment Agency said: “We’re very pleased with the outcome of the investigation. This is the third time this company has been prosecuted for similar offences and I hope that this will act as a reminder to them, and to other companies, the seriousness of polluting our environment. It also enforces the importance of good practice on site and the awareness of the potential damage to the environment that site operations may have.”