South West Water (SWW) has been fined nearly £8m pounds for environmental offences across Devon and Cornwall spanning six years.

Delivering her sentence, District Judge Matson said that “incidents of pollution will not be tolerated” and fined the water company £7,867,733 at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday September 29.

The Judge repeatedly found that the company’s conduct amounted to reckless failures in management systems and response to known risks.

SWW had pleaded guilty at earlier court hearings to 18 charges, 17 for illegal water discharge activities and one charge for failing to take reasonable remedial measures following failure at a pumping station.

The offences took place between January 2015 and July 2021 in six locations across Cornwall and Devon: Bodmin, Harlyn, Playing Place, Polperro and Plymouth.

The water company was ordered to pay £329,993 in costs and a £120 victim surcharge.

SWW previously pleaded guilty to six criminal charges relating to spills at Holywell Sewage Pumping Station. These will be considered at a later date to be determined.

Hundreds of sewage spills took place over six years at popular bathing spots and some of the both counties most sensitive habitats.

Judge Matson quoted South West Water’s mantra that “one pollution is too many” and said that SWW need to make sure they carry their mantra forward, “to ensure that horrendous, very significant incidents of pollution such as these never happen again.”

On 24 August 2019, “untreated sewage gushed through the harbour wall on a bank holiday weekend” at Polperro Harbour. South West Water were fined £1.1 million for this single incident.

Despite alarms firing, SWW took 10 hours to attend the incident.

Across multiple sites, SWW failed to put in place and enforce systems of environmental management as could be reasonably expected.

On 231 occasions between January 2016 and July 2021, untreated sewage was discharged onto Harlyn beach, a location popular with locals and tourists.

At SWW’s sewage works near Bodmin, there were 336 illegal spills in the seven years to March 2020.

The Judge said of this site: “I find the fact that such a large amount of spills were not picked up on by South West Water to be significant and incredibly concerning.”

In another case, SWW failed to provide a permanent fix for a combined sewer that entered a small stream known as Budshead Creek in the Whitleigh area in Plymouth, despite multiple formal warnings from the Environment Agency over several years. This led to two pollution incidents in August and September 2020.

The Judge found that SWW knew the pipe was precarious and yet did nothing about it for years until it collapsed in 2020 and “raw sewage spilled into the watercourse”.

Despite pleading guilty, the Judge found that SWW, instead of being remorseful and accepting full responsibility for acts, have tried to minimise their role in the offending.

South West Water has 56 days to pay all penalties in full.

Clarissa Newell, Area Environment Manager at the Environment Agency said: “We hope this record fine will influence a new approach for South West Water, where protecting the environment takes priority in spending decisions.”

Environment Secretary Angela Eagle added: “This sentence sends a clear message: if water companies wilfully ignore their obligations, they will face the full consequences of their actions.”