The managing director of an Angus farming company said being taken to court felt “like a stab in the back.”
Frank Geddes was speaking after the firm was fined £500 by Sheriff Peter Paterson at Arbroath after being found guilty of carrying out dredging work at a time of fish spawning.
D Geddes Farms Limited initially faced three charges, but allegations of carrying on controlled activity and engineering works in contravention of Scottish water regulations were dropped.
Sheriff Paterson found the company guilty of carrying out the work during a period critical to the spawning and subsequent emergence of juvenile fish within the Gighty Burn by Easter Braikie Farm.
He said he accepted it was not the intention to interfere with the fish but there was life in the burn and his view was the breach was a technical one.
Defence agent Anne McKeown said there was no evidence of any actual harm or that any fish were killed and Sheriff Paterson agreed the work was “not carried out in a cavalier way.”
Speaking to The Courier after the sheriff’s verdict, Mr Geddes said: “Our company was engaged in a very well established procedure, which is an essential part of good farming practice which has been carried out since time immemorial.
“It came like a bolt from the blue and felt like a stab in the back when the summons was served.
“As my understanding was we had quite a constructive dialogue with Sepa (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) up to this time.
“We were cooperating in every way and the criminal proceedings and associated defence costs to our company along with the costs to the public purse could have been avoided.”
Stuart McGowan, Dundee and Angus unit manager at Sepa said: “Dredging carried out in the wrong way can cause serious environmental harm, damage to fisheries and increased flooding downstream.
“However Sepa does not want to impede farmers or landowners who want to improve field drainage.”
He said Sepa does not require an application to authorise activities such as the removal of in-stream or bank-side vegetation.
However, other activity, such as sediment removal from dry gravel or upstream and downstream of bridges, requires registration, which can be acquired online.
He added: “I would reiterate that our message is to approach Sepa for advice.
“Our Arbroath office dealt with 17 dredging-related queries in the last month. Out of these, 13 were allowed to proceed without further contact, while two required registration and two required licences.”