South West Water pleads guilty to five pollution offences

South West Water has admitted causing pollution incidents in Plymouth and Cornwall. The utilities company appeared before magistrates in Plymouth where it pleaded guilty to allowing raw sewage into Hooe Lake and polluting Budshead Creek, in Whitleigh.

SWW also admitted polluting Padstow Harbour. It will be sentenced at a later date. The Exeter-headquartered company admitted five offences in Plymouth and Polperro relating to illegal discharges and breaches of an environmental permit.

The company was charged with discharging “poisonous, noxious or polluting matter” - namely untreated sewage - into Hooe Lake from the pumping station between August 27 and September 2, 2020, contrary to regulations.

It also admitted a second charge at the same place and on the same dates, of breaching an environmental permit by discharging raw sewage equal to or in excess of the amount allowed due to rainfall, again contrary to regulations.

SWW also admitted two charges relating to Bodmin Road, in Whitleigh, between August 27 and 29, 2020. The company was charged with causing a water discharge into freshwater at Budshead Creek of “poisonous, noxious or polluting matter” beyond what was authorised by an environmental permit, and contrary to regulations. It also admitted to a similar offence at the same location on September 6.

Furthermore, the company admitted that between August 24 and 27, 2019, and not in accordance with an environmental permit, it caused a water discharge into Polperro Harbour, once again contrary to regulations.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “South West Water Ltd has today been before Plymouth Magistrates’ Court where the company pleaded guilty to five offences related to illegal water discharge activities and a breach of an environmental permit. The company has admitted two charges relating to the Hooe Lake Sewage Pumping Station at Plymstock between August and September 2020 of causing a sewage discharge and breaching an environmental permit, one of causing a discharge into Polperro harbour in August 2019 and two relating to discharges at Bodmin Road, Whitleigh, Plymouth, in August and September 2020.”

In April this year, SWW was charged with 30 offences relating to treatment works, sewage pumping stations and the sewer network in Plymouth and Cornwall. More than 200,000 pages of evidence were submitted to the court by the Environment Agency relating to alleged offences over a six-year period.

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