A HOUSING developer based in York has been fined £13,000 after the company was accused of polluting a river.

Persimmon Homes (West Yorkshire), based in Fulford, admitted two charges of allowing too much silt to enter the River Ryburn, from its housing site in Ripponden, West Yorkshire.

The company appeared at Calderdale Magistrates Court on Friday and pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching its Consent To Discharge permit. The firm was also ordered to pay £1,820.

After the case, Dave Tempest, an Environment Agency (EA) officer, said: "Persimmon Homes was warned of the risk of pollution to the river, yet failed to take all the necessary precautions.

"Rivers in West Yorkshire are recovering from their industrial legacy and it is vital that businesses take responsibility for their actions and ensure that the environment is protected."

The court heard how in October, 2003, officials from the agency told the housebuilder about potential drainage problems from its development off the A58.

Its officers were concerned silt from the site could end up draining into the nearby river and asked Persimmon Homes bosses to take action to stop it.

The company applied for a Consent To Discharge permit, which regulated the amount of overflow from the site that could go into the water.

But in July, 2005, the agency received a report of silt in the river and a sample showed there was 48 times more suspended solids, such as silt particles, in the water than allowed under Persimmon Homes' permit.

A sample revealed 2,420 milligrammes of suspended particles per litre, rather than the consented level which was 50 milligrammes per litre.

In an interview, the company explained it had a number of holding tanks to prevent run-off from the site going directly into the river. But it said run-off had escaped when a stopper came loose during bad weather.

In the second incident in May, 2006, an officer inspected the site and found more pollution had discharged into the river. A sample showed the amount of suspended solids was again more than the permitted amount, at 664 milligrammes per litre.

The court heard that although Persimmon Homes had the equipment to contain the discharge, there were only limited checks to see if it was working properly.

In both incidents, the river's wildlife was not visibly affected, but the pollution could have had a damaging impact. The firm was fined £5,000 for the first incident and £8,000 for the second.

Kevin Best, construction director of Persimmon Homes (West Yorkshire) said: "We would like to extend our apologies for any upset we may have caused, but would like to point out adverse weather conditions were largely to blame.

"Flash flooding last year caused the bung in the surface water holding tanks on site to dislodge. This subsequently allowed silt off the roads to discharge into the river. However, as soon as we were alerted to the problem, we quickly replaced the bung and increased the size of the holding tank and also added additional filtration systems."

Mr Best said the second incident happened when a drain connected to the system overflowed and allowed silt to enter the water. He said: "Throughout these incidents, we worked closely with independent environmental experts who were able to confirm no damage had been caused to the eco-system."