One incident was said to have caused dead animals to be seen over a 1.5km area (Picture: Getty Images)
A water company has been fined £1.2 million for allowing pollution which killed wildlife.
Anglian Water was ordered to pay the huge fine after it admitted causing poisonous, noxious or polluting matter to enter inland freshwaters without an environmental permit.
One incident caused dead animals to be seen over a 1.5km area, the Environment Agency said.
A string of maintenance failures in Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire cost the company £871,000 after the counties’ freshwaters were polluted.
Sir James Bevan, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said: ‘Serious pollution is a serious crime and I welcome these sentences from the courts.
‘The Environment Agency will pursue any water company that fails to uphold the law or protect nature, and will continue to press for the strongest possible penalties for those which do not.’
The court also heard how at one site there was an unchecked build-up of ‘unflushables’ such as cotton buds and sanitary pads.
This caused a blockage, which led to a discharge of sludge seeping into treated sewage.
New cleaning measures had not been implemented by Anglican water in the region (Picture: Chris Gorman / Big Ladder)
Anglian Water were found to have failed to implement a new cleaning method after removing a screen to prevent blockages four years ago.
Separately the utility company was ordered to pay £350,000 after a 1.5km-long sewer at Caldecott, Cambridgeshire, burst for the sixth time in less than 20 years.
Some 4km of Bourn Brook – a tributary of the River Cam – was affected for nearly a week as the court found Anglian Water was again too slow to fix it.
The idyllic stretch is a valuable home for water voles – the UK’s fastest declining mammal – while locals have worked tirelessly to keep the beauty spot clear from invasive plants.
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One incident caused dead animals to be seen over a 1.5km area, the Environment Agency said.