A HAREWOOD farmer has been ordered to pay nearly £6,000 in fines and costs for polluting a beck with slurry.

John Thackray, 64, of New Laithe Farm, was sentenced at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on Monday, January 15.

He had admitted three offences linked to his failure to properly manage manure and slurry in 2016.

Investigating officers from the Environment Agency discovered pollution in Keswick Beck in February, 2016.

After finding a sewage fungus in the watercourse they traced it upstream to Thackray’s farm.

Laura Taylor, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that streams of water were seen running from a manure pile downhill into the stream.

Sewage was also seen entering the beck from a ditch connected to the farm, and a pipe was discharging a thick, black sludge into the water.

A biological survey found that a 3.3 kilometre stretch of the watercourse had been affected by the fungus, while the water contained pesticides that are toxic to aquatic life.

Thackray told the Environment Agency that he was struggling to contain surface water on his farm during heavy rain.

A water storage lagoon was in use on the farm but it was not constructed to required standards and, during heavy rainfall, had no spare capacity to hold the extra water.

Further inspections in 2016 revealed that some improvement work, including fitting new gutters to barn roofs and installing water drains, had been done.

A new lagoon was also built but, by July, 2017 the guttering was still not finished and the lagoon had still not been built to the required standards.

Senior Environment Officer at the Environment Agency, Iain McDonell, said after the hearing: "The court found the defendant was reckless in not addressing surface water problems that he knew existed on his farm.

"The result of this was that polluted water ran off into Keswick Beck and had an impact on the water quality and ecology.

"It is vital that farmers follow existing guidance and bespoke advice given to them by the Environment Agency to ensure that their activities do not have a detrimental impact on the environment.

"If anyone sees any pollution of this kind they are urged to report the matter to our incident hotline on 0800 807060, so we can investigate."

In mitigation, Thackray told the court he had made improvements to the farm’s surface drainage since the pollution incidents.

He was fined £500 and ordered to pay £5,384.25 in costs, plus a victim surcharge of £50.