BIRSE Construction Ltd, the company contracted by Yorkshire Water to install new water pipelines to North Craven, has been fined £2,000 for polluting waters around Giggleswick.

At Skipton Magistrates' Court on Friday the company pleaded guilty to a charge of polluting Tems Beck on or about February 20.

Prosecuting the case on behalf of the Environment Agency, Sue Tysoe said the offence had come to light as a result of a complaint by a member of the public.

She said water in Tems Beck, a tributary of the River Ribble down from Giggleswick School, had been polluted with silt, and an officer for the agency was called out to investigate the matter.

The officer tried to locate the source of the pollution and followed it upstream to a small tributary at Settle Golf Course.

He continued to follow it up Bank Lane and was led to Croft Closes Farm, where Birse Construction Ltd had been working on the Settle to Ingleton water supply pipeline.

He tried to contact Birse to ask if an investigation was going to be carried out, but only heard from them the day after.

A representative for Birse said a large volume of water was believed to have leaked from a new pipeline in Giggleswick as part of a cleaning operation the previous day, and they thought this was the cause of the pollution.

The court heard the Environment Agency officer went to inspect the farm site with Birse representatives and found muddy water flowing down the road and land drains. He asked for the work to cease until the contamination was sorted out. The officer returned with dye the next day and put it in the water running along the channel of the pipeline. Some time later the dye showed up in the beck.

"No action was taken by Birse to prevent water entering the land drains, tributary or beck," the court was told. "Although Birse were aware of the problem they did not inform the Environment Agency."

She added that Birse had later written a letter to the agency saying it was an unpreventable accident. But the Environment Agency claimed the firm failed to adequately inspect the pipeline and should have taken steps to prevent the contamination of the water or contact themselves.

In mitigation, Collette McCormack said the incident occurred when the contractors were laying pipelines in the Giggleswick area.

She said: "The pipes are cut every so far down the pipe to ensure the whole project works. They are then fixed back together and the water is pumped through."

She added that in this incident it was accepted a leak occurred in the pipe and this caused pollution in the stream.

"We accept that at the moment there is no evidence of direct damage from that incident.

"I'd like to say Birse Construction Ltd is a national construction company which takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously. We accept that we did not inform the Environment Agency immediately.

"An employee on Saturday afternoon made a judgement call that was wrong... In this situation we can do nothing but apologise for this incident."

She added that since this had occurred all employees on site had been told that in future the Environment Agency must be notified immediately of any incidents and had implemented procedures.

Birse Construction Ltd was also ordered to pay £832.50 costs.

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