NEWS: Timber company fined for pollution breaches
A timber company has been fined £20,000 for a pollution incident which led to toxic chemicals leaking into an area of Tenbury Wells.
Forest Garden Ltd, trading as M & M Timber, appeared at Kidderminster Magistrates Court on 13 December 2024.
The case was brought by Malvern Hills District Council, following an investigation by Worcestershire Regulatory Services, the council’s shared service that deals with environmental regulation.
The incident occurred at the company’s premises in Clows Top, Kidderminster, where a failure of a timber treatment pressure vessel resulted in the discharge of toxic timber treatment chemicals into the surrounding land and nearby Dumbleton Brook, Tenbury Wells, in September 2021.
The company pleaded guilty and the District Judge Strongman presiding accepted the defence’s arguments that the actions of the company were negligent rather than reckless, but he highlighted the aggravating factor of multiple failings by the company.
He accepted that the company has no previous convictions and had taken steps immediately after the incident to mitigate the pollution incident and to improve the infrastructure afterwards.
He noted that the company submitted that it had taken a financial hit recently because of increased costs of timber, wage costs, and had claimed to be in financial difficulties with a drop in profits due to unseasonal weather and low demand for replacement fencing.
Despite this, the Judge was clear there had been the potential for significant harm to be caused by the company’s conduct and fined them £20,000, reduced from his starting point of £45,000 based on sentencing guidelines, due to the mitigation.
Cllr David Harrison, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Flooding, and lead member for Worcestershire Regulatory Services at Malvern Hills District Council said: “The council and our team at WRS take breaches of regulations designed to protect our environment very seriously and we will not hesitate to tackle incidents like this. As a local authority, one of our priorities is the maintenance and protection of the local environment for our communities and ensuring businesses take their duties seriously is an important part of that. We will not tolerate business operations that shirk their duties to protect the public. We thank the District Judge for highlighting the importance of ensuring that proper preventive action is not more expensive than allowing pollution to occur and breaking the law.”
Full costs of £5411.49 were awarded to the local authority and the company must also pay a victim surcharge of £190.
Date published: 21 January 2025