Legal advice please!

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joeanne

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What steps do you take if someone intentionally pollutes your grazing land with oily water?
The field opposite ours, that our friend rents, runs alongside a main road. Today the road flooded quite badly, so along came a lorry and.........pumped the water straight off the road into the field. Now this water is the run off from the railway line above and as such is oil polluted, so now the grazing is buggered, and the horses have had to shut in the very small corral at the top of the hill.
We took the reg number of the lorry and reported it to the council but like the dimwits who drove the lorry, they were very much "oh well".
Now i think they should pay her hay bills, until this is sorted (as they quite obviously cant graze the grass!) and pay for the field to be decontaminated.
So does anyone know what steps to take?
We do have video of them pumping the water in, along with the resulting mess!
 
NFU or BHS Legal Helpline for a starter for advice.
Find out if the local council HIghways Dept ordered the pumping?.
 
I think this would come under nuisance ....The pumping was deliberate but did he know the horses where there???? It is still an interference with land rights ....I would speak to a solicitor or the CAB ....As your friend is a tenant of the land this might make a difference but the owner might be able to do something. I am not legally qualified in anyway however so best seek professional advice. Hope it gets sorted.
 
our neighbours pumped the contents of the contents of their sesspit on our field the day we moved it!
Council came and looked and shrugged.
Enviroment agency came and tested with dye to prove it was them and it was but just told them to stop!
We couldn't use the field for two years and cost £2,500 to put right.
Neighbours wouldn't pay.
New neighbours moved in last year and dug a very large pond on the boundary. A pump fills pond with runoff from their roof and sesspit. Pond fills and floods our field.
Council shrugs
Enviroment agency warns them not to do it.
Our solicitors warn them not to do it.
Neighbours still doing it.
I just give up!!!
 
No legal advice, but I'd suggest both Environment Agency and Environmental Health Officer of your District Council. I do a lot of work with both and would suggest best chance of a result is to get a personal contact in the organisations and then just politely keep pestering them. If you can get the right person interested then you will see action, but its getting out of the loop of faceless automated telephone systems ..The EA incident hotline is 0800 807060
Unfortunately I can only imagine that the lorry that did the pumping was probably officially sanctioned in the first place... In which case might be worth trying the County Council as this could have been the work of thier highways department...
 
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We took the reg number of the lorry and reported it to the council

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Why didn't you just tell them to stop?
 
i had a situation where someone fly tipped a load of paint by the ditch that ran into our land phoned the council they didnt want to know,actually told me they were not an emergency service!!cheeky buggers,so i phoned the local papers and surprise surprise within an hour the council had sent someone to clear mess etc!!!!funny that.
 
Follow JE's advice! Papers (so long as you have independant witnesses).

There must be some claim somewhere for damages!

Considering that one can't even empty hay soaking water down the drains then it's ridiculous!
 
I think the leading case authority is under the Rylands v Fletcher rule....It's complicated and I really would seek legal advice as there is case law in abundance on this topic ....
 
Its a total pain when this happens - I had a case where the duckpond opposite my paddocks over flowed and flooded the barns/houses surrounding it. The fire service pumped it all into my paddock. On the one hand I do agree that my paddock should get it rather than someones home, but it certainly didnt help me. They also managed to blast away half of my drive which now needs substantial repairs.

The ironic thing is that the paddock in question drains into a ditch, which then meanders under the road and then drains into the same duck pond. So all they were dont was re-circulating the water. I explained this to them and told them to pump it into the other side of the ditch which they ignored resulting in the barns still being flooded and the bottom 3rd of my paddock being wrecked.


I cant add anything to whats already been said but re Canasta's problem I would suggest building a wall along the party boundary with good deep footings. Your neighbours will then get their own sh*t, which will serve them right! Sometimes you need to lower yourself to their level if common decency doesn't prevail!
 
You need to talk to the Environmental Health Department of your local council (ask to be put through) there will be EHO's in charge of pollution. They should send someone out to you.
 
Get onto environmental health.
Our neighbours old septic tank is leaking into the top end of our paddock following flooding in February.
We tried to sort it our amicably over the summer with the neighbours, alas as its a field they didn't get the urgency.
Anyway, within 2 days of contacting environmental health, its so serious they have now been given an enforcement order to replace the septic tank within a certain timescale.
I know untreated sewage is more serious than oil, but it's still polution and they may be able to give you some advise especially if near water courses etc.
 
oh maybe it was that there was three big burly blokes doing something they knew they shouldn't be, and until one of the other girls came i was on my own........

thankyou to those who have responded, it doesn't sound too hopeful then does it.?
 
Just phone the environment agency and RSBP and tell them that birds are getting it on their feathers. You will be amazed how quickly they will turn out!
 
No legal advice I am afraid, but my old neighbour had his garden flooded and completely ruined when the farmer turned a small woods into a large and overflowing lake and he (the neighbour that is) fought it out for 2 years and won both compensation and major works to the lake to stop the flooding. He did devote large chunks of his time to the whole thing though and involved the Environment Agency and the local council.
 
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