Panorama
 
 
 
   
 
 

BARRATT HOMES PROSECUTED FOR TURNING DEVON STREAM BROWN

Environmental Panorama
London – United Kingdom
March of 2006

 

06/03/2006 - The construction company Barratt Homes has been ordered to pay fines and costs of £4,129 after turning a Devon stream brown with mud. The Environment Agency received a tip-off from a local resident at Copplestone on 1 April 2005, saying that a caterpillar-tracked vehicle was creating a sea of mud which was going into a stream.

An officer went to the site and saw a truck dumping loose soil on a slope that ran down to the Creedy Yeo stream. The stream was brown with soil for the entire length of the housing development, approximately 40 metres.

As well as loose soil falling into the water, a section of the site appeared waterlogged and had slumped into the stream.

The site manager said there had been a heavy downpour on 29 March which had washed soil into the stream and stopped work.

The Environment Agency officer asked to see any documents or method statements which would cover working close to a watercourse. The copy that was eventually presented related only primarily to work after the building was finished in an attempt to stabilise the site and reduce the amount of material falling into the stream.

An ecological appraisal revealed that invertebrates in the stream had been affected by the amount of silt in the water.

Barratt Homes Limited, Wingrove House, Ponteland Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne appeared before magistrates at Cullompton today and pleaded guilty to one charge under the Water Resources Act 1991 - that on or before 1 April 2005 the company permitted soil to enter a tributary of the Creedy Yeo at Copplestone in Devon.

The company was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £1,629 in costs.

Brian Grant from the Environment Agency said: ‘Barratts were warned by their sub-contractors, following their initial risk assessment of the site, of their concern about the close proximity of the stream. Despite this Barratts failed to act and claimed to have a risk assessment covering working close to the watercourse when this was not the case. Whilst steps in the early phase of the work had been taken to protect the trees along the bank, no written risk assessment was produced to protect the stream.

‘This incident was entirely foreseeable.

The Environment Agency’s free 24 hour hotline for reporting environmental incidents is 0800 80 70 60

Notes to Editors:

Barratts has received a number of cautions over the past five years concerning work in the Devon area:

20 November 2000 – Two cautions under the Water Resources Act 1991.

30 October 2002 – Environmental Protection Act 11000

10 October 2001 – Water Resources Act

 
 

Source: Environment Agency – United Kingdom (http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk)
Press consultantship (Paul Gainey)
All rights reserved

 
 
 
 

 

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