Country estate fined £28,000 for taking too much water from rare chalk stream

The Dorset Frome is a fragile and rare chalk stream (Alamy/PA) -

A wealthy landowner has been fined £28,000 for taking too much water from a rare chalk stream during a drought.

The Environment Agency said the Ilchester Estate in Dorset “deliberately flouted” the conditions of its licence to abstract water from a spring on the headwaters for the chalk stream Dorset Frome at Evershot.