The companies have been ordered to pay fines and costs in excess of £90,000 for causing trade effluent to pollute 3 kilometres of a Worcestershire brook.

ETC, a food manufacturer operating in Lower Broadheath, was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £52,000. CEPS, an engineering company in Bidford-upon-Avon was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £20,000.

The Court was told that the discharge caused the deaths of a significant number of fish and that it followed a series of human and corporate failings.

The fines is dissapointing to say the least, compared to the damage that had been done.