The European Court has heaped criticism on Northern Ireland for its poor sewage treatment system. The country will now face huge fines for its substandard process – the severity of which will be decided at a later date.

Nine waste waterworks were found to be inadequate by the court including those at Omagh, Bangor, Londonderry and Portrush.

The initial complaint was instigated by Friends of the Earth with an observation that they felt little was being done by the authorities to rectify the problem.

Their NI director, John Woods, said he was pleased the authorities would now be forced to deal with the problem.

"We could see the raw sewage being pumped out at Bangor, Portrush and Portstewart, but it seemed nothing was being done about it," he said.

"This appalling sewage pollution is not acceptable to us, it's not acceptable to the people of Northern Ireland, and it's not acceptable to the European Court."

The Department of Environment released a statement saying that they were still analyzing the ruling, but that in their opinion it didn’t affect the handling of planning applications in the highlighted areas.