The prosecution of a housebuilder over an alleged sewage effluent discharge into a County Durham watercourse has been delayed by ten months.

Taylor Wimpey UK Ltd was to have gone on trial, the subject of two charges brought by the Environment Agency, later this month.

The agency has brought the prosecution over what it claims was the discharge of sewage effluent into a tributary of the Shotton Beck, following work on a housing development in Sedgefield, in September 2019.

But just 11 days before the long-planned case was to have begun at Durham Crown Court, the agency applied to have the case taken out of the list and rescheduled.

The Northern Echo: Environment Agency's prosecution of Taylor Wimpey at Durham Crown Court put back to next March

Judge Jo Kidd told case prosecutor, Lee Fish, that she had seen an email describing, “a rather catastrophic breakdown in communication”, on the agency’s part.

It emerged the agency failed to check if its main prosecution witness would be available to attend the trial on the listed dates, and on belatedly doing so, it was discovered he will be out of the country for three weeks attending the graduation of a family member, abroad.

Mr Fish accepted the situation was, “not satisfactory”, due to an oversight on the agency’s part.

“It’s not something that occurred due to bad faith, it was clearly human error.

“A mistake such as this should not force the prosecution into a position where they can’t proceed with something which on the face of environmental regulations is a serious breach.”

Mr Fish said the evidence of the main witness was important in the case as to the sequence of events over the discharge and its effects.

Asked by Judge Kidd if it would be possible for the witness to give his evidence by video link from overseas, Mr Fish said it would be unfair to interfere with his holiday plans through something which was not his fault.

He said there may also be diplomatic difficulties over the giving of evidence in a UK trial from outside the jurisdiction, but that may not be “insurmountable”.

The Northern Echo:

Ben Williams, for Taylor Wimpey, said in a case arising from events in September 2019 it would further disadvantage the company by moving the case back to next year and there is likely to be a “wasted costs order” made on behalf of the company against the agency.

Judge Kidd agreed it would be unfair to interfere with the witness’s holiday plans and, due to that and other practical issues, she said the case should be taken out of the list.

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She said she did not feel the further delay would necessarily disadvantage the defendant company.

All parties then agreed to settle on a new date for the estimated week-long trial, which will now begin on March 3, next year.

The scheduled trial on May 13 and a pre-trial hearing, next week, were taken out of the list.