A FARMER has been ordered to pay more than £5,000 after he potentially increased the flood risk to homes by dredging a Sutton Courtenay brook without permission.

Paul Caudwell, the owner of Caudwell and Sons, Gravel Lane, Drayton, was fined £2,600 by Didcot magistrates after pleading guilty to two offences of failing to obtain consent to carry out dredging and forming a structure within eight metres of the bank.

The company was also ordered to pay the Environment Agency’s costs of £2,500.

The Environment Agency said the site of the work at Ginge Brook was also known to support a substantial population of rare water voles, the UK’s fastest declining mammal.

Afterwards, Caudwell, 51, the owner of Cross Trees Farm, Sutton Courtenay, claimed he dredged the brook to prevent flooding to his land and ten nearby homes.

The court heard that on March 13, 2009, a member of the public telephoned the Environment Agency to say that a farmer was scraping up the river bank with a digger and building a barrier of boulders and earth along the banks of the brook, a shallow and mainly fast-flowing watercourse.

An investigation by a flood risk management enforcement officer on March 24 found that about 100 metres of bank on both sides of the brook had been raised by about half a metre, using soil from the farmer’s land.

On the right side of the brook, a further 200 metres of bank had been damaged by removing soil and vegetation. The material had been placed on the top of the bank, effectively isolating the river from the flood plain. All the natural vegetation along the 200 metres of river had been removed. In places, the brook had been widened by up to a metre and the brook bed had been dredged and deepened.

Caudwell was ordered to complete remedial work along 350 metres of the bank to remove all of the raised land alongside the brook.

Caudwell was interviewed at Abingdon police station on July 28 and admitted authorising the work along the brook on behalf of Caudwell and Sons. He also admitted failing to apply for consent from the Environment Agency and potentially increasing flood risk to downstream properties.

The Environment Agency said the work Caudwell carried out was within eight metres of the brook and would not have received consent because the raising of the banks would increase river flow, threatening properties downstream.

Afterwards, Caudwell said: “The land is in extreme danger of flooding as it is low-lying. It is ridiculous — I’ve been fined and prosecuted for doing a good job preventing that from happening.

“The Environment Agency makes life very difficult and if I had not taken the action, then ten houses and over 40 acres would’ve been flooded.

“I didn’t know at the time that I needed permission to carry out the dredging, which, of course, I would have sought if I had. However, the agency has since said it wouldn’t have granted permission because of the voles, which strikes me as crazy.”

Alison Futter, an Environment Agency conservation officer, said: “We are pleased the court has taken strong action against Mr Caudwell as it serves as a stark reminder that people must consider the impact of their actions on the environment.

“We are more pleased, however, that the Ginge Brook has been partly restored to the peaceful and vital habitat it was for water voles.”