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Farmer fined after covering road with potatoes, mud and silt

An estimated 50 to 100 tonnes of soil from the field had run off the field down onto the A358 and then into the watercourse

Chris Brayford

05 July 2025 鈥� 3 min read

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David Womack, senior environment officer at the Environment Agency, said: "David Mitchell had control and custody of the land he rented up until the point of harvest and was therefore responsible for the land management practices. He chose to grow a high-risk crop on a sloping field with light soils."

A farmer has been order to pay more than 拢40,000 after causing silt, soil and potatoes to escape from an unharvested field and pollute a tributary of the River Tone in Somerset. Potato farmer David...

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