Fish died as a result of discharge from the creamery into streams

A famous creamery in Cornwall killed fish by discharging waste into local rivers and stunk out local residents with its smells. Davidstow Creamery near Camelford produces the well-known Cathedral City cheddar cheese and over several years from 2016 was responsible for discharges and odour issues that led to fish dying in the River Inny.

The company that owns Davidstow Creamery, Dairy Crest Ltd, is being sentenced at Truro Crown Court after entering guilty pleas to 21 charges relating to pollution and odour incidents and permit breaches at Davidstow Creamery. Eleven of the charges admitted by the firm are to do with the company breaching environmental permits with waste discharges into the River Inny.

Further offences relate to the contravention of permits on odour, and another for the company waiting more than a month to inform the Environment Agency about breaches in discharge. Thousands of trout died as a result of events at Davidstow Creamery.

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Another charge stated that the company allowed discharges that caused water to be poisonous or harmful to fish. Canadian-owned Dairy Crest has since said it has carried out significant work to rectify the issues subject of the case.

The court heard how people living nearby have spoken of how their lives have been badly affected from foul stenches emanating from the creamery. A statement from Mr Potter, who lives in Trewassa, said: “Since 2017 we have had issues with horrendous smells and noise from the creamery. It was a bad eggy/fishy smell and prevented us from being in our garden and meant we had to close windows when the wind was blowing towards the bungalow.

"The smells got worse and gave myself and my wife headaches and affected our vision. My son is asthmatic so we had to get an air purifier so he can breathe in the house.” The smells led to the creation of the Davidstow Residents’ Action Group.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Richard Banwell told the court that the company had placed significant blame on contractors, but added it was “inconceivable as a legal operator of a permit should be able to seek to minimise its culpability”. Video footage was played to the court of a reddish liquid discharge into rivers which was meant to be clear.

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Mr Banwell told the court there is still ongoing surcharging today, with more recent containment failures being investigated. He added that there were issues with leakage from drainage pipes and structures overground. He added that the company showed “negligence” in its actions and that “reasonable care was not taken”.

The sentencing hearing also heard from a whistleblower who worked in the water recovery treatment system. He spoke of management telling staff to do things differently than they had previously and the company using more chemicals when he left than when he started. He also mentioned a blame game when things went wrong, disappearing log sheets and instances of bullying that even caused staff to go off sick.

Judge Simon Carr said he will deliver his judgement on Jun 23, with a significant financial penalty “inevitable”.

He said the creamery was “a plant creating significant problems for a significant period of time” and that given there was “a catalogue of problems”, the Environment Agency should have been notified straight away of the issues. Cheese production continued throughout the time spanned by the indictment.

Read about how people reported the fishy stink keeping them awake at the time.