Casa Brighouse: Wedding at Yorkshire hotel faces 11th-hour cancellation after closure order is extended in drainage row

On Friday, Calderdale Council was granted an extension to its partial closure order affecting the function suite at the venue at Kirklees Magistrates Court after owner Jack McDaid was found to have failed to complete remedial work to the site’s sewer connection by the deadline agreed at a previous hearing.

Casa, on Elland Road in Brighouse, was due to host a wedding reception for around 100 guests at 6pm on Saturday April 15, and it was unclear whether the event could go ahead, with Mr McDaid unable to confirm whether the party could be accommodated in other areas of the hotel.

After magistrates made the order, Mr McDaid’s solicitor asked for an exemption to be granted which would allow the wedding to go ahead tonight with portable toilets erected in the grounds, but was told that magistrates were unable to vary an order, only discharge it – with the chair of the bench telling those in court: “Someone needs to tell that bride.”

Issues initially began last December, when a collapsed manhole on land bordering Casa, owned by a water skiing club, led to a sewage pipe connected to toilets and a kitchen in the function suite failing and an overflow of raw sewage.

Mr McDaid had installed a temporary cesspit tank, which is emptied every two days, after the council’s first closure order was granted earlier this month, but environmental health officers provided evidence that this too had overspilled and that they feared a ‘serious public nuisance’ could be caused if it did not have capacity to cope with large functions such as weddings.

The function areas must now remain out of use for the next 30 days, though the hotel’s bar and restaurant, whose facilities are connected to a public sewer, can open.

During the lunch break of the day-long court hearing, Mr McDaid returned to Casa to inspect work by his civil engineering contractors, and provided photographic evidence of their progress along with assurances that they would have finished repairs to the original pipe by 6pm on Friday, when the previous closure order expired.

Yet a Yorkshire Water field officer who was called as a witness said she could not see from the images that the pipe had been connected to required standards and had further concerns over groundwork that was also to be completed as part of the scheme that Mr McDaid had been given consent for.

The council argued that Mr McDaid had not supplied documents detailing the scheme of works to be undertaken by his contractors, that details were missing and that it ‘provided no reassurance’.

Their counsel added: “The stabilisation of the land has not been undertaken. It is a quagmire with large banking. It is an unstable area where the connection is meant to be. There needs to be a clean-up of the land and groundwork. We can’t see what the plan for the connection is – it has not been provided.”

Giving evidence, Calderdale’s principal environmental health officer David Dunbar said: “No issues have been resolved. The focus is on the drainage. The concern is that the banking can slip. Overflow is likely again if those toilets and sinks are used. The cesspit is not big enough. On April 5 a commitment was given by the contractor that the pipe would be connected first, followed by the groundwork and stabilisation.”

Mr McDaid’s solicitor, Graham Gouldsborough, argued that it had been agreed that the pipe and manhole work would be completed by the Friday deadline, with the groundwork to follow next week. Both he and Mr McDaid claimed that any overflow officers had seen from the cesspit was surface water following heavy rain.

Yorkshire Water field services team leader Michelle Shackleton was also called as a witness, and confirmed that Yorkshire Water had approved Mr McDaid’s application to connect to their sewers on March 4. She conducted several site visits herself, and said she believed there was a ‘slim chance’ the work would be finished by April 14 and that as an untested system, it could only be used once Yorkshire Water had inspected and signed it off.

Mr McDaid himself gave evidence, and told the court that no sewage had ever flowed into any of the watercourses near his hotel, which include the water skiing lake, fishing ponds and a canal. He said: “We’ve done everything to comply. We closed the function suite. The overflow was before the pipe was capped. We’ve had cancelled bookings and there has been a huge effect on trade.

"The cesspit tank was the biggest we could find at short notice. It's done its job. It trickles when full, a bit like a bath, but it is emptied every two days. My contractors are working to a 6pm deadline, it is clearly tight but we will be there or thereabouts. The cesspit will remain until Yorkshire Water are satisfied. The groundwork will begin next week.”

Cross-examining, the council’s barrister said that a description of how the tank operated was only ‘theoretical’ and based on Mr McDaid’s opinion, with no supporting evidence or surveys.

"There has been continuing leakage since April 5 and no evidence the cesspit can work properly alongside weddings.”

Granting the order, the chair of the bench said: “We are satisfied that there is a risk of serious nuisance based on evidence. We recognise that you are carrying out work and are close to completion. The order can be discharged before the 30 days if Yorkshire Water sign off the work.”