Owner Banham Poultry Ltd has been fined £300,000 for failing to stop the odour pollution, and ordered to pay out costs of over £67,000
A Norfolk poultry slaughterhouse has been fined Ā£300,000 for failing to stop odour pollution affecting the lives of people living and working in Attleborough.
A court heard that the Environment Agency received nearly 350 complaints from local people and businesses in the area between 2019 and 2021.
District judge Andrew King heard the abattoir had broken or damaged doors and walls, a roof so weak it collapsed, and another part of the site unsafe for Environment Agency staff to enter.
He acknowledged practices at Banham Poultry Ltd had a āsignificant effect on quality of lifeā in the town.
Banham, now under new management from the time of the offending, had a permit from the EA to slaughter up to 67 million birds a year, more than a million every week.
The agency warned the company to act after 9 complaints about the slaughterhouse were made early in 2019, coinciding with waste blood kept on site too long.
Believing the company had breached its permit for managing smells, investigators gave Banham an enforcement notice to limit or prevent odours leaving the boundary of the abattoir.
Blood was allowed to flood the slaughterhouse floor. the court heard (Photo: Environment Agency)
Sophie Cousins, who led the investigation into the abattoir for the EA said: "Banham Poultry failed to invest in odour-prevention. People living and working nearby were badly affected over a long period of time.
"The EA decided on prosecution after Banham missed many chances to comply with the law. We gave them time and assistance to put matters right, but the problems just mounted up."
She added: "The siteās odour management plan, meant to control the effect of work on the community, was āripped upā, according to one employee.
"Another member of staff wrote in an e-mail in 2019 they were āembarrassedā¦ā and couldnāt defend the companyās poor management of the site, adding āwe stinkā."
The company pleaded guilty to failing to keep activities free from odour levels likely to cause pollution outside the abattoir between January 2019 and September 2021.
Banham also admitted not complying with an enforcement notice served on it by the EA that set out steps they should have taken to limit or prevent odours leaving the site.
On 15 September 2022, Chelmsford magistratesā court ruled the offences as reckless culpability. Banham was fined Ā£300,000 and ordered to pay over Ā£67,000 in costs and a victim surcharge of Ā£170.