Ilchester Estate, located in Dorset, has a licence to abstract water from a spring on the headwaters of the chalk stream Dorset Frome at Evershot. The water is used to supply houses, offices, gardens and farms that go to make up the Ilchester Estate. The current annual charge invoiced by the Environment Agency under its charges scheme for the abstraction licence is £120. The estate then sets its own charges for supplying the abstracted water to businesses and residents on the estate.
Enough excess water to fill 3 Olympic swimming pools taken
The licence allows the estate to abstract up to 66.6 cubic metres of water a day, but following an investigation by the Environment Agency, it was found that between December 2022 and July 2023 the authorised licence limit had been exceeded by a total of nearly 7,500 cubic metres – around three Olympic size swimming pools worth of water. Between December 2022 and January 2023 Wessex was officially in a drought.
Now the estate has paid a variable monetary penalty (VMP) of £19,777.69, plus costs of £8,298.60, to the Environment Agency. The penalty came after the agency had previously warned the estate to stop over abstracting water.
In 2018 the estate was advised by the Environment Agency of how an increase to their permitted abstraction levels could be applied for. Instead, the estate said steps would be taken to reduce the amount of water being taken, but amounts abstracted continued to be above the permitted level each year through to 2023.
Conditions ‘flouted’ during drought
Carolyn Lane, senior environment officer for the Environment Agency, said:
Chalk streams are stunningly beautiful, but ecologically sensitive, watercourses. Where companies or individuals hold licences to take water from them, they cannot ignore the conditions attached and take as much water as they like.
In this case, the Ilchester Estate not only deliberately flouted the conditions, they did so during a drought, when it is likely that damage will have been done to the river and the surrounding environment it supports.
The headwater reaches of the Dorset Frome have been endorsed as a Flagship Chalk Stream catchment by Wessex Water. It is one of only 200 chalk streams in the world, of which 85 per cent are in the UK. The streams contain mineral-rich pure water and are havens for wildlife.
Background
To operate other than in accordance with a licence is an offence; Ilchester Estates has committed a relevant offence; namely breach of s.24 Water Resources Act 1991.
Variable Monetary Penalties (VMPs) are a civil sanction, brought in under the provisions of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 and Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010.
The Environment Agency may use a VMP when there is evidence of negligence or mismanagement; when there is an environmental impact; to remove an identifiable financial gain or saving as a result of the breach; or where prosecution is not necessary or can be avoided to get the most appropriate outcome, in accordance with our Enforcement and Sanctions Policy.
VMPs were initially capped at £250,000 for each offence, but the cap was removed for offences committed on or after 1 December 2023.
