J Mounfield & Sons Selby butcher faces £15,000 bill

JA Mounfield & Sons allowed so much blood into the local sewage system, it turned the liquid red, York Magistrates Court heard.

Jordan Millican, prosecuting for Yorkshire Water, said the firm had had permission to discharge trade effluent from its site since 1980, but only on condition the liquid it sent into the sewage system was within defined chemical and volume limits.

J Mounfield & Sons, of Staithe Street, Bubwith,  near Selby, pleaded guilty to contravening the chemical limits of their trade effluent discharge and contravening the quantity limit of their trade effluent discharge, both on May 30, 2023.

The company was ordered to pay a total of £14,667.40, consisting of a £6,667 fine, pay a £2,666.80 statutory surcharge and £5,333 prosecution costs.

The 134-year-old butchers and abattoir firm is a multiple winners in the pork pie category of Yorkshire Taste Awards including winning last year and had no previous convictions.

David Mounfield of JA Mounfield & Son and some of its award-winning pork pines

Mr Millican said Yorkshire Water officers visited the butchers in January and February 2023 as part of an investigation into a large amount of liquid arriving at Bubwith Sewage Treatment Plant. The liquid flow was red.

On March 14, 2023, the sewage works again received a large amount of bloody liquid. Tests revealed it exceeded Mounfield & Son’s chemical limit by a third and was nearly double the quantity limit.

On May 23 and May 30, officers noticed a blood-coloured liquid at an inlet that was part of the sewage discharge system.

Mr Millican said on May 30 “it was clear” Mountfield was exceeding its discharge limits and tests confirmed this.

For the company, Mark Thompson said the company had only been charged in connection with the May 30 discharge as the others had not reached the level for prosecution and there had been no incidents since involving its discharge into the sewage system.

It supported local businesses by running an abattoir that slaughtered animals from local farms.

It kept the liquids generated by the abattoir in tanks and under an informal agreement, they were usually collected by a local farmer for use on his own land. But the arrangement had fallen through leading up to May 30.

The discharge had never involved emptying the tanks.

The company now had a formal agreement with a specialist company to collect the liquids.