Wessex Water has been found negligent after sewage leaks killed thousands of fish – with the company failing to report incidents to the Environment Agency as early as it should have.

Photo credit: Rijk van de Kaa

Swindon Magistrates’ Court today sentenced the company to pay a total fine of £500,000 after it pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges relating to the Bowerhill Lodge sewage pumping station at Melksham, Wiltshire, and one relating to a burst sewer main at the Wick St Lawrence sewage treatment works near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.

The company was also ordered to pay costs of £60,000, plus applicable VAT, and a victim surcharge of £170.