A POULTRY processing company has been fined £20,000 for polluting a stream.

Paul Flatman Ltd was fined after the Environment Agency said it had polluted more than a kilometre of the stream over two years.

The company was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £7,789 after admitting polluting the stream at Packards Lane, in Wormingford, near Colchester.

Harlow Magistrates’ Court heard on Friday pollution caused by trade effluent had badly affected all life forms in the stream, which feeds into the River Colne.

Claire Bentley, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said the company had been advised several times since December 2006 to stop the discharge and had been given deadlines by which to solve the problem.

Miss Bentley said the company had not done this and, since October 2008, samples taken of the discharge from the company’s treatment plant had high levels of ammonia, with no signs of improvement.

The company had a permit allowing it to discharge treated trade effluent into the stream, but the discharge was not within the conditions of the permit.

Miss Bentley added: “There appears to have been a lack of focus in the management of the site. Despite being given reasonable time, the defendant has failed to either get the discharge compliant or to make alternative arrangements for dealing with it.”

She said the lack of action was prompted by financial motives and added: “The company admitted it did not have the finance to invest into remedial work.”

Paul Flatman, director of the company, told investigators he had obtained quotes for work to be done, but it would be expensive.

A new treatment plant was installed in June 2010, but the discharge was still grossly polluting and two months later an Environment Agency officer saw brown foam coming from the new tank.