A PUB has been fined £150,000 for polluting a stream which flows into the River Leven.

Spirit Pub Company, which owns the Cross Keys Inn on Middlesbrough Road in Guisborough, has been ordered to pay the money by Teesside Magistrates' Court.

The company was prosecuted by the Environment Agency, who found the pub was discharging solid waste particles as part of sewage into a stream, a tributary of the River Leven.

The court was told that the Cross Keys has an environmental permit to discharge treated sewage effluent into the stream under strict conditions. However last year a brown, foamy effluent was seen running into the stream and Environment Agency officers investigated and found the solid waste.

Representatives of the company appeared in court on Friday (September 25) where they pleaded guilty and were sentenced for two charges of breaching conditions of the permit and one charge of not sufficiently maintaining the sewage treatment works.

The company was fined £50,000 for each of the three offences, and has to pay costs of £4,596 and a victim surcharge of £120; a total of £154,716.

David Bradley, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court the brown effluent was seen in the water on April 21, 2014.

Samples were taken and the pub was advised to take immediate action to stop the discharge, but a revisit on April 24 saw the same brown effluent going into the water.

Analysis showed the discharge significantly exceeded permit limits for solids and biochemical oxygen demand. This had a negative impact on the water quality for a distance of almost 720m and the ecology of the stream for 380m.

The pollution also posed a risk to livestock which grazed on land alongside the stream. The treatment works were severely overgrown with giant hogweed, and one of the tanks was full of brown sludge.

In his summing up of the case, David Bradley said that it appeared the sewage treatment works were ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

A spokesperson for the Cross Keys said: “We have apologised unreservedly to the local community and acted immediately to rectify the problem. We would like to reassure our customers and the community that the pub now meets all environmental standards.

“We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and are disappointed that this incident occurred. We have taken a number of steps to ensure there will be no repeat.

“A new system of risk assessment has been introduced so that daily inspections are made of the sewage outfall to ensure that the discharge is running clear. These checks are recorded and immediate action will be taken to remedy any issues or concerns raised.”