Casa Brighouse: Business shut down by council after pumping raw sewage into lake

A pipe from restaurants and events venue Casa Brighouse has been pumping the sewage onto Freeman’s Cut - used as a waterskiing lake - since December.

Calderdale Council were forced last week into placing a cap on the pipe, after Yorkshire Water deemed a temporary fix by Jack McDaid, owner of Casa Brighouse, as “illegal and dangerous.”

But following the cap failing twice over the past week, leading to yet more sewage pouring onto the land, officers served a 48 hour closure notice on the business on Tuesday evening.

Owner Jack McDaid has “failed to take responsibility for preventing an issue that is causing concern for the wider community,” according to a senior member of council staff.

Council staff are now seeking a three month extension through the courts to the closure notice.

Ian Day, Calderdale Council’s director of public services, said: “The water pollution caused by defective drainage at the Casa Hotel and Restaurant in Brighouse is unacceptable.

“We care about Calderdale’s communities and environment, and understand local people’s distress in relation to this issue, so we have taken a range of robust action against Casa to send a clear message that we take the situation very seriously.

“Casa’s failure to take the action required to stop their activity polluting the water has given us no choice but to close the premises, as of Tuesday 21 March.

“We have the power to close the business for 48 hours, and we’re now applying to the court for an order to close the premises for up to three months.

“Business closure is always a last resort for us, but Casa has continually failed to take responsibility for preventing an issue that is causing concern for the wider community.”

Mr Day said the council had tried to work with Mr McDaid to solve the situation, but that continued pollution had left the council “really disappointed.”

“In the weeks leading up to this latest enforcement action, we were in regular discussions with the business owner after a thorough investigation concluded that Casa was the sole cause of the water pollution,” he said.

“Unfortunately, foul water continued to flow into the watercourse following these discussions, so we used our enforcement powers to take firmer action – first, requiring Casa to stop their activity causing foul water and waste to be discharged through an unconnected pipe, to cap the pipe and remove the waste material, and secondly – after Casa didn’t act within the required timescale – we went a step further and capped the pipe and cleared the waste containers from the site through our own contractors, with the cost to be recovered from Casa.

“We are really disappointed that despite our work to successfully cap the pipe and resolve the issue, foul water started flowing into the watercourse again and our contractors had to go back to repair the cap earlier this week.

“We will not hesitate to use the powers available to us in a proportional way, based on evidence, when action is warranted.”

Jack McDaid was approached for comment.