Water firm fined as sewage leak kills 5,000 fish

Thousands of fish were killed by the sewage leak in Northamptonshire

A water company said it was "deeply distressing" raw sewage was discharged into a river, killing 5,000 fish, after it was made to pay more than £500,000 by a court.

Anglian Water was fined at Peterborough Magistrates' Court over the incident on the River Great Ouse in Brackley, Northamptonshire, in May 2017.

About six million litres of pollution was pumped into the waterway, which flows into the Wash, the Environment Agency said.

Andrew Raine, from the public body, said: "The environmental impact of this pollution was substantial."

The Environment Agency said fish including brown trout, chub and pike were killed

It said the raw sewage leaked into the river and was not stopped by Anglian Water for 23 hours.

A failure of the early warning alarm system meant the leak went unnoticed.

The Environment Agency said the pollution stretched 12km (7.5 miles) down river and fish including brown trout, chub and pike were killed.

'Damage to the river ecosystems'

Anglian Water pleaded guilty to a breach of permit and was ordered to pay a fine of £510,000, costs of £50,000 and a victim surcharge of £170.

Mr Raine said the fine "acknowledges the damage to the river ecosystems that this sewage spill from Anglian Water has caused".

The equivalent of more than two Olympic swimming pools of sewage was discharged into the River Great Ouse

An Anglian Water spokesperson said: "We work tirelessly to protect and enhance the environment, and find it deeply distressing when incidents like this occur.

"We know there's no room for complacency, and we're absolutely determined to improve further and progress towards achieving our zero pollutions goal."