Yorkshire Water has admitted two offences related to sewage being pumped for days into a watercourse on the outskirts of York.

James Puzey, for the Environment Agency, which brought the case, told York Magistrates' Court the company visited its pumping station 10 times in six months and “each time” saw that its stand-by pump wasn’t working.

Then the pump failed and sewage was discharged “for more than a week” into the Foss Dyke to the west of Bishopthorpe in Spring 2018.

The pumping station, which is called Fossbridge, is at Copmanthorpe Lane, Bishopthorpe, south of the Askham Bar A64 interchange.

Dominic Kay KC, for Yorkshire Water, said it had yet to prepare a statement on what exactly went wrong, but district judge Adrian Lower would have to decide if the offences were committed through negligence or recklessness before passing sentence.

Yorkshire Water, of Halifax Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to causing sewage to be discharged into the Foss Dyke between March 11, 2018, and March 19, 2018, and failure to comply with its environmental permit for the Fossbridge Pumping Station between October 1, 2017, and March 19, 2018, by failing to ensure that its stand-by pump was in working order. 

It faces an unlimited fine.

Mr Puzey said the hearing was the eighth time in the last eight years that Yorkshire Water had been convicted of a criminal offence. Its record included a variety of offences.

The district judge adjourned the case for lawyers on both sides to prepare documents for the sentencing hearing, which will take place on May 30 next year.

Sewage discharges into watercourses have made the news many times in recent months after the number of discharges relating to heavy rainwater increased dramatically across the country.

In August this year, the water regulator Ofwat proposed that Yorkshire Water be fined £47 million for failing to manage sewage spills by the way it manages wastewater treatment and sewer systems. At the same time, it recommended a £107 million fine for Thames Water.

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said the firm was ‘disappointed’ with the proposed fine and that it had ‘co-operated fully’ with Ofwat’s investigation into the issue.

Yorkshire Water planned to respond to Ofwat’s decision in September and has a £180 million plan to reduce sewage discharges by April 2025.