Fishing club welcomes £20,000 payout over sewage spill

A FISHING club has welcomed the decision by Yorkshire Water to pay £20,000 in compensation for causing “catastrophic pollution” in a Wakefield lake.

The utility company will pay the money to Walton Angling Club after a ruptured pipe leaked large quantities of raw sewage into Walton Colliery Lake, killing the fish and all other aquatic life.

Fish Legal, the environmental law group which represented Walton Angling Club, said fish stocks at the lake had been “effectively wiped out” following the incident in October 2013.

Attempts have been made to restock the lake, but these have been largely unsuccessful, leaving the club unable to fish its most popular lake.

Club secretary Les Gray said: “It has been a long saga to get some kind of justice for the club for the five-year loss of one of our best waters.

“This was complicated by the unsuccessful restocking attempt by Yorkshire Water before the lake had sufficiently recovered from the 2013 sewage spill.

“We are very grateful for the dogged determination of Fish Legal and our expert BFJ to set the record straight and obtain substantial compensation towards the club’s losses.”

In 2016, Yorkshire Water was fined £600,000 at Leeds Crown Court after being prosecuted by the Environment Agency over the spill.

Opened in the 1980s, Walton Colliery was constructed from reclaimed coal mine land in Walton. Many of the angling club’s members are former miners.

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said: “Protecting the environment is a priority for us which is why we are deeply sorry about the incident at Shay Lane in Walton in October 2013.

“Following the incident we invested over £1m to replace the pipe which burst and caused the incident to occur.”