A SOMERSET dairy company was ordered to pay more than £9,000 after milk waste escaped from a factory and polluted a stream.

Parkham Farms Limited, of St John’s House, Castle Street, Taunton, admitted causing the pollution in North Devon and was fined £6,700 and ordered to pay £2,583 costs by Barnstaple magistrates yesterday.

More than 70 fish including brown trout and bullhead died after waste from Higher Alminstone Farm, Woolsery, which is the main processing site for the cheese manufacturer, entered a tributary of the Dipple Water in June.

An investigation revealed a member of staff unfamiliar with the farm’s waste treatment plant had accidentally switched on a valve and left it on causing a storage tank to overflow.

Director Peter Willes said: “It was agreed between myself and the Environment Agency that this was a one off accident.

“However because there were some fish killed they decided to pursue it.

“We were very upset that this happened but it was very much a one off accident and things have been put in place so that it can’t happen again.” Andrew Leyman from the Environment Agency said: “More than two kilometres of an important tributary of the River Torridge were polluted as a result of this incident that was one of the worst we’ve seen for some time.

“Milk waste can be very harmful when it enters rivers and streams because it strips the water of oxygen causing fish to suffocate.

“While we managed to recover more than 70 dead trout and coarse fish, the total number killed would have been considerably higher.”