The High Court has ordered the Environment Agency to rethink its ruling that Anglian Water Services Ltd is under a duty to provide public sewers to serve the villages of Little Bentley, Chetwode, Bent Hill and Wretton.
Tomlinson J said that Anglian decided in three of the four cases that it was not under a duty to provide first-time sewerage because statutory conditions were not met.
The judge added that Anglian considered that cesspools were the appropriate solution for Chetwode and Little Bentley, and that a common private package plant was the most appropriate solution for Bent Hill. Anglian also decided that it would only provide first-time sewerage in certain parts of the village of Wretton.
However, residents of all four villages applied to the Environment Agency to decide the matters. In November and December 1999 the agency ruled against Anglian in each case, holding that Anglian was under a duty to provide public sewerage.
In its challenge to that decision, Anglian argued that, among other things, the agency: unlawfully fettered its discretion by adopting an inflexible policy discouraging use of cesspools; failed to inform Anglian of its policy to discourage use of cesspools; took irrelevant matters into consideration; erred in its approach to the practicability of private treatment plants and in its approach to some of the duties imposed on it by provisions of the 1995 Environment Act.
In a complex 66-page judgment, the judge ruled that: “In my view in all four cases the matter must be completely reconsidered”, and ordered that the Environment Agency review each case.
PLS News 1/11/00
