Farmer fined over slurry pollution in brook

The River Swilgate was polluted when Timothy Juckes' slurry pipe leaked

A farmer has been ordered to pay more than £7,000 in fines and costs after admitting illegally discharging slurry into a river, harming fish and other wildlife.

Timothy Juckes, 48, of Tredington House Farm near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, laid a pipe in the River Swilgate in order to pump slurry from one storage lagoon to another between 14 and 15 November 2022.

Environment Agency officers attended after receiving reports of pollution on 16 November, and noted a strong slurry smell, brown discoloured water and some dead fish.

Juckes was prosecuted after the source was traced to his farm, and he admitted illegally discharging slurry at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court on 29 September.

The defendant said he would normally run the slurry pipe over the river, but on this occasion did not want to carry equipment on a tractor across a wet, re-seeded field, the Environment Agency said.

Juckes had also decided not to put the pipe across the bridge as he was tending sheep, and would not be able to get a livestock trailer over the bridge with the pipe there, the agency said.

The slurry entered the water when the pipe leaked - water samples showed oxygen levels were low following the spill, and there were raised readings of ammonia in the river.

Juckes was fined £1,086 and ordered to pay costs of £5,528.50 with a victim's surcharge of £434.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said:"This pollution case was entirely preventable and shows that our officers will seek out farmers who ignore the regulations.

"This case has resulted in unacceptable pollution of a local brook, causing significant harm to fish and other aquatic wildlife."