Farmer fined as slurry floods neighbour

The court was told a family were forced to leave their home after heavy rain washed slurry and dirty water from a neighbouring smallholding into their house, also polluting a local stream.

The court was sentencing John Andrew Cockerill, 45, of Depot House, Rosedale East, Pickering, who had previously pleaded guilty at Scarborough Magistrates Court to polluting a stream with manure, slurry and dirty water, and to keeping manure, slurry and dirty water on a smallholding in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm to human health.

He was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £6,296 compensation to the Environment Agency for a clean-up operation on his land. He was also ordered to pay £1,704 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Louise Azmi, prosecuting counsel for the agency, said cattle waste had built up on Cockerill’s smallholdng  near Rosedale Abbey, Pickering, mainly because he had overstocked his smallholding and had no measures in place to deal with the manure.

She said the agency had been in contact with Cockerill about the disposal of slurry on various dates since 1998.

Miss Azmi said in September 2008 heavy rain washed slurry and dirty water off Cockerill’s land, down the hill and into a neighbour’s home. Four days later agency officers visited the area and saw ‘smelly, brown liquid’ running down the side of the road and into a stream.

She said the risk to human health was very high and the agency had classed the situation at the smallholding as a category 1 incident – the most serious type.

Speaking after the case, agency environment officer Jim Richards, said about 240 tonnes of manure, up to 10 feet deep in some places, had been kept on land at the smallholding.

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