A Cardiff cake maker has been fined after polluting a stream in one of the city's most popular parks.
Memory Lane Cakes Ltd, which produces pre-packed cakes for companies such as Disney, Thorntons and Mary Berry, was ordered to pay a fine of £26,300 at Cardiff Magistrates' Court on January 14 after pleading guilty to prolonged pollution of the Wedal Brook in Heath Park.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW), prosecuting, said that officers were first made aware of the pollution in April 2019 by a member of the public who reported "sewage type smells" around the stream in the park.
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Investigating officers found that wastewater from the bakery on Maes-y-Coed Road in Heath was entering the stream from a pipe connected to an industrial dishwasher at the site, which had wrongly been connected to the surface water sewer, rather than the foul sewer.
This had caused 800 litres of dirty wash-waters, including butter, sugar, flour and egg, to flow into the stream every day, NRW said.
NRW officers said they also found 380 metres of the stream covered in sewage fungus - a hair-like bacterium that grows in polluted water - which had caused all of the invertebrates along the brook to die.
Memory Lane Cakes has since fixed the connection, with all its wastewater now correctly entering the foul sewer and being sent to a treatment plant.
Cardiff Magistrates Court confirmed that the company was fined £23,000 for polluting the stream, and a further £3,300 for failing to provide information required by the waste regulation authority. It must now also pay NRW’s costs of £13,000 and a victim surcharge of £190.
Michael Evans, NRW’s Head of Operations South Wales Central, said: “Misconnected waste pipes can end up polluting Wales’ rivers, damaging the environment and harming local wildlife.
“By not ensuring its waste pipes were connected correctly, the wastewater from the Memory Lane Cakes site polluted the Wedal Brook for a long time. This resulted in sewage fungus killing all life in the river for hundreds of metres downstream.
“We hope the outcome of this case clearly demonstrates that anyone polluting Wales’ rivers will be pursued through the courts if necessary and could face large fines due to their actions.
“We will continue our efforts to educate people and businesses about the impact misconnected pipes can have on the environment.”
Memory Lane is owned by Finsbury Food Group, which runs eight manufacturing facilities and bakery companies, as well as one distribution company, and produces cakes, bread and snack products for major UK retailers and other licensed brands such as Universal, Mars and WeightWatchers.
The Cardiff bakery - which employs around 850 permanent staff - is the one of the country's leading suppliers of pre-packed cakes, as well as the leading supplier of supermarkets' own-label 'sharing' cake ranges.
According to the Finsbury Food Group website, the eight-acre site in Heath hosts five bakeries with nine main production lines, each producing millions of cakes, traybakes and seasonal treats every year.
In a statement sent to WalesOnline following the court hearing, a spokesperson for the cake maker said: "Memory Lane Cakes is committed to operating with integrity and care and takes its approach to waste management extremely seriously.
"We have accepted responsibility for and apologise for a mistake made in 2019 that led to a small amount of bakery waste from one of our tray washing machines making its way into to the mainline drain instead of being sent to our on-site trade effluent plant for processing.
"Working alongside Natural Resources Wales, as soon as the issue was identified an investigation was launched and the error was promptly corrected. We believe the level of harm to the environment caused by the incident was minimal.
"In order to ensure that an incident of this nature doesn’t occur again, Memory Lane Cakes has since introduced a number of further measures on site."
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