TV Chef's Pub Fined £42,000 For Water Pollution

The Yew Tree Inn and it's director have been fined for pollution offences and breaches of sewage discharge consent conditions. Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree Inn , a renowned Berkshire gastro pub, and it's director Andrew Parton have been ordered to pay £42,100 in fines, costs and compensation for polluting a stream with poorly treated sewage.

Basingstoke Magistrates fined Yew Tree (Highclere) Ltd £30,000 with £7,785 costs. Parton pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to polluting Penwood stream between November 2007 and January 2009, contrary to Section 81 of the Water Resources Act 1991.

The firm was also ordered to pay two nearby residents £200 each in compensation.

As the permit holder, Parton pleaded guilty to five offences under Section 85(6) of the act for breaching sewage discharge consent conditions. He also pleaded guilty to failing to comply with an enforcement notice, an offence under Section 90(b) of the act as amended. He was fined £3,100 and ordered to pay £865 costs.

The Environment Agency was alerted to the pollution on 23 November 2007 when sewage was reported entering a drainage ditch. Officers traced it's source to the Inn. The water was grey, smelly, cloudy and had high levels of suspended solids and biological oxygen demand (BOD).