Waterways Board fined pounds 18,000

The Government's British Waterways Board was fined pounds 18,000 yesterday for allowing a farm to take too much irrigation water from a canal. The prosecution was brought by another arm of Government, the Environment Agency.

Derby magistrates heard that, despite a warning letter, the waterways board continued to allow Trent Valley Growers Ltd to take more water than its licence allowed from the Trent and Mersey Canal at Barrow-on-Trent last summer. The firm was fined pounds 3,600. Nicholas Schoon