A WATER company that discharged sewage into an environmentally sensitive stream has been fined after bosses pleaded guilty to the offence.

United Utilities Water was fined £10,000 after admitting to polluting Dibbinsdale Brook at Wirral Country Park.

The Environment Agency brought the prosecution against the company, which was also ordered to pay costs to the agency of £945.

The park is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest for its wildlife and natural features.

Jane Morgan, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told Wirral Magistrates' Court that on December 11 an agency officer was at a meeting at the park ranger offices with the Dibbinsdale Working Group, set up to improve and maintain the park.

While the officer was in the meeting a ranger reported that a manhole was discharging sewage into the brook.

The officer contacted United Utilities and asked it to check on Spital Road Pumping Station, which is downstream of the manhole.

Six months previously a blockage at the pumping station had caused a similar incident.

The agency had made it clear in writing that should it happen again it would not hesitate to take legal action.

The officer visited the site and saw that liquid effluent was flowing out from underneath the manhole cover and spilling into Dibbinsdale Brook.

She took a sample of the discharge for analysis and the results suggested that it was typical of storm sewage effluent - sewage that is discharged into rivers and streams in storm conditions.

The Environment Agency and United Utilities exchanged letters about the possible causes of the incident, the action that United Utilities had taken since the earlier incident in June, 2003, and what could be done to prevent it from happening again.

However, on March 22 of this year, a ranger reported that sewage effluent was once again discharging into Dibbinsdale Brook. When the Environment Agency arrived at the park the discharge had stopped but the manhole cover was raised and sewage was on the ground.