The company pleaded guilty at Telford Magistrates’ Court to 3 charges:
Causing sewage to discharge into the Row Brook from the Acton Burnell Treatment Works between November 2014 and May 2016
Failing to provide a labelled sampling point
Failing to operate and maintain a grass plot treatment facility
In the case brought by the Environment Agency, Severn Trent Water was yesterday fined £800,000 in total (£400,000 on the first and last charge and no separate penalty on the second).
The COP26 UN summit will now take place between 1 and 12 November next year. It was originally supposed to take place in November 2020. However, it had to be postponed due to the pandemic. Dozens of world leaders will attend the gathering, the most important round of talks since the global Paris Agreement to tackle climate change was secured in 2015.
This year marks the date by which countries are expected to come forward with stronger emissions cuts to meet the goals of the deal. But with countries around the world grappling with coronavirus, and many putting citizens in lockdown, governments have prioritised the immediate global health crisis. Since the pandemic took hold, greenhouse gas emissions have dropped sharply as industry and transport have been curtailed, but experts have warned that pollution will soon bounce back without climate action.
The Environment Agency is continuing to protect people and the environment during coronavirus (COVID-19). It is using technology to carry out its role as an effective regulator where face-to-face visits are restricted due to government guidelines.
Whilst regulatory visits to sites that could cause serious environmental harm are continuing in the pandemic, in certain instances the organisation has carried out virtual inspections of permitted waste sites to check they are complying with regulations.
This year is on course to be the world’s hottest since measurements began, according to meteorologists, who estimate there is a 50% to 75% chance that 2020 will break the record set in 2016.
Heat records have been broken from the Antarctic to Greenland since January, which has surprised many scientists because this is not an El Niño year, the phenomenon usually associated with high temperatures.
This January was the hottest on record, leaving many Arctic nations without snow in their capital cities. In February, a research base in the Antarctic registered a temperature of more than 20C (68F) for the first time on the southern continent. At the other end of the world Qaanaaq, in Greenland, set an April record of 6C on Sunday.
Crewe businessman faces bill of £84,000 for failing to comply with an enforcement notice.
The businessman had pleaded guilty to 4 offences in June 2017. A Morrey Distribution Limited (the business in question) also entered guilty pleas to 4 similar charges of breaching permit conditions, contrary to the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2010 between November 2014 and April 2016.
The sentencing hearing took place remotely at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court using Skype conferencing facilities due to current Covid-19 restrictions.
