HAMPSHIRE County Council has been fined £1 for every one of the 1,500 gallons of oil that it allowed to leak from a Chandler's Ford school into a nearby stream.

Council chiefs - who pleaded guilty to causing polluting matter to enter a watercourse - accepted the blame for the spill from Pitmore Special School that flooded Monk's Brook last year.

On top of the £1,500 fine, the council was ordered to pay £1,117 in costs.

The leak of heating oil was caused by fractured underground fuel pipes running between the school in Winchester Road and an external storage tank with a 5,000-gallon capacity.

Eastleigh magistrates heard that the council was forced to spend £17,000 mopping up the spill that affected almost one mile of the stream.

And education bosses are spending somewhere in the region of £25 million to replace old oil heating systems at schools in the county.

The case against the council was brought by the environment Agency, which was contacted by residents from Westwood Gardens and Wychwood Grove on August 9, 1999.

The householders complained of oil on the stream to the rear of their properties and officers called out to the scene discovered an oily sheen on the water, with contaminated banks and a strong smell of diesel in the air.

Oil booms and absorbent material were deployed to contain the pollution and the leak was later traced to the school.

Agency environment protection officer Tony John-ston said: "This incident clearly highlights the problems that can occur with underground fuel pipes and the need for regular inspections and maintenance programmes.

"It is the responsibility of all those handling polluting matter to take care to ensure that there is no risk that the environment will suffer."

A council spokeswoman said: "Hampshire County Council reacted swiftly to the oil spillage at Pitmore Special School. Since the incident a new gas-fired heating system has been installed and all pipework replaced.

"A Hampshire-wide programme to replace similar pipework at other county council buildings has been instigated to prevent a similar situation recurring."