Environmental analysis news: Hotel fined after sewage pollutes stream

The proprietors of a Gloucestershire hotel have ordered to pay £11,460 in fines and court costs after allowing sewage effluent to pollute a nearby waterway.

According to the Environment Agency, the Hare and Hounds Hotel at Westonbirt near Tetbury had its own sewage plant and discharged treated liquid into the tributary of the Tetbury Avon.

The effluent is regularly tested. However, samples taken in July 2009 revealed high levels of ammonia and an unacceptable build-up of fat in the pumping chamber of the plant, caused by an equipment failure in the hotel kitchen.

Laurence Matthew, a spokesman for the Environment Agency, commented: "There was a serious problem with non-compliance at this site. The owners failed to take the necessary action and continued to allow poor quality effluent to be discharged even after the agency had issued them with a formal warning."

Meanwhile, it was reported last week that a London brewery has been ordered to pay £30,751 after failing to comply with waste regulations.

Written by Joseph Hutton