THE Ilchester Estate has paid out nearly £28,000 after it persistently took more water than it was licenced to.

The estate has a license from the Environment Agency (EA) to abstract water from a spring on the headwaters of the chalk stream Dorset Frome at Evershot.

This water is used to supply houses, offices, gardens and farms that make up the Ilchester Estate.

The estate pays the EA £120 for its licence each year and then sets its own charges for supplying the abstracted water to businesses and residents on the estate.

Despite the license allowing the estate to abstract up to 66.6 cubic metres of water a day, an investigation by the EA found that between December 2022 and July 2023 the authorised licence limit had been exceeded by a total of nearly 7,500 cubic metres – around three Olympic size swimming pools worth of water.

This comes at a time when Dorset was in a drought.

The estate has now paid a variable monetary penalty of £19,777.69, plus costs of £8,298.60, to the EA. The penalty came after the EA had previously warned the estate to stop over abstracting water.

The EA said the estate was advised in 2018 of how an increase to their permitted abstraction levels could be applied for.

Instead, the estate said steps would be taken to reduce the amount of water being taken, but amounts abstracted continued to be above the permitted level each year through to 2023.

‘Companies cannot ignore conditions’

Senior environment officer for the Environment Agency, Carolyn Lane said: “Chalk streams are stunningly beautiful, but ecologically sensitive, watercourses.

“Where companies or individuals hold licences to take water from them, they cannot ignore the conditions attached and take as much water as they like.

“In this case, the Ilchester Estate not only deliberately flouted the conditions, they did so during a drought, when it is likely that damage will have been done to the river and the surrounding environment it supports.”

The headwater reaches of the Dorset Frome have been endorsed as a Flagship Chalk Stream catchment by Wessex Water.

It is one of only 200 chalk streams in the world, of which 85% are in the UK. The streams contain mineral-rich pure water and are havens for wildlife.