Hundreds of fish die in North Yorkshire beck prompting Environment Agency investigation

The Environment Agency has said it is investigating the suspected pollution at Skeeby Beck, near Richmond. It said it has officers on site assessing the ecological impacts. Fly Fishing Yorkshire, which is run by Olly Shepherd, posted on social media to say the beck had been “running black” for around 15 hours and led to the death of dozens of fish.

It has been claimed that the slurry which ran into the river was caused by vandals causing damage to a nearby farm, AWSM Farming in Hutton Magna.

Edward Bennett, environmental manager at AWSM, told Richmondshire Today: “Despite having robust controls in place, we discovered that one of our digestate stores had been vandalised on Thursday, leading to the loss of digestate contained within the store.

“This was promptly reported by us, to the Environment Agency and the police yesterday morning. We are continuing to work very hard to clean up and mitigate the impact of the digestate, while working closely with the Environment Agency and Police to assist them with their ongoing investigations.”

The Environment Agency confirmed to The Yorkshire Post that it was investigating, but said it could not comment further due to the matter being an ongoing investigation.