UPDATE (6/7/22): Somerset Independents On Somerset Businesses: Repeat Environmental Offender Alvis Brothers at Lye Cross Farm

Alvis Brothers Ltd
Repeat Environmental Offenders

UPDATE (6/7/22)

We have repeatedly asked for a response, but have received none.

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We will praise Somerset businesses when they are good employers, genuinely look after our wonderful County and enhance the reputation of Somerset.

And we will expose Somerset businesses when they do not, and particularly when they carry out "greenwash" to launder their image. We often find that companies that are too eager to make claims about their environmental credentials, are trying to hide something (e.g. see our reports on Wyke Farms, another "family-owned" business that claims to be "100% Green").

So we were disturbed to hear of Lye Cross Farm near Cheddar being prosecuted at Bristol Magistrates Court, which we were alerted to thanks to a report by The Leveller.

The company is Alvis Brothers Limited, who were fined £29,000 for repeated pollution incidents, after repeated visits by the Environment Agency. Apparently, says The Leveller:

"Offenders had not had as many slaps across the hand from the Environment Agency as in this case."

According to the Govwire website:

"Alvis Brothers Ltd have a long history of environmental offending, having previously received a formal caution and warning letters from the Environment Agency."

So we checked.

It turns out that like Wyke Farms, Alvis are repeat environmental offenders. And the dialogue between the Environment Agency and Alvis remained hidden until the court case. 

We believe that environmental pollution should be made public by default.

But too much pollution is hidden. And the Environment Agency do not publish their reports.

With Wyke Farms, Somerset Independents had to use Freedom of Information requests to find out what Wyke Farms had been up to, and the dialogue remained hidden until we had exposed it and reported on it.

So what of Alvis and Lye Cross Farm? On their website, they make much noise about "The Environment - Farming Responsibly". They claim that:

"The Alvis family cherish this area of outstanding natural beauty."

Really? According to Government records, Alvis were also prosecuted at the same Magistrates Court in 2014, and fined £16,000 under "EPR 2016 Regulation 38(1)(a)".

On the Alvis website, they also claim:

"Each system under Alvis management aims to protect and value wildlife and the environment by encouraging diverse habitat and the utilisation of animal manure and by crop rotation."

Their claims are difficult to reconcile with the successful prosecutions in court. Both prosecutions relate to pollution of the very environment that they claim to "cherish".

They also claim that:

"Other environmental measures include the creation and renovation of ponds and tributaries flowing into the River Yeo."

Yet they have polluted local waterways in repeated pollution incidents.

In the latest incident, the Govwire website stated that:

"Assessments by the Environment Agency the following week found a chronic impact on the aquatic invertebrates living downstream of the farm, whilst sensitive species, indicating a good water quality, were only found upstream."

The original article on Gov.uk stated that the offences were:

"Causing an unpermitted water discharge activity, namely the discharge of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter on and before 28 June 2019 from Lye Cross Farm, Redhill, Bristol into inland fresh waters contrary to Regulations 12(1)(b) and Regulation 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

Fine £22,000.00

Causing an unpermitted water discharge activity, namely the discharge of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter on and before 18 September 2019 from Lye Cross Farm, Redhill, Bristol into inland fresh waters contrary to Regulations 12(1)(b) and Regulation 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

Fine £ 7,000.00

Costs £ 8,003.02

Victim surcharge £ 181.00"

We will be asking Alvis Brothers to respond. We contacted Lye Cross Farm by email but they have not responded.

Standing Up For Somerset's Environment