Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Sending in the heavies is no way to tackle issue
Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger tells Defra Secretary Thérèse Coffey of his concerns that Somerset Levels farmers are being subjected to disproportionately harsh treatment at the hands of the Environment Agency.
DEAR Thérèse I have had reason this week to take issue yet again with the Environment Agency, which now appears to be wielding the big stick in an attempt to intimidate farmers on the Somerset Levels.
One of my constituents, whose farm waste is filtered through an extensive reed bed, has had the unwelcome knock on the door (in office hours, rather than at midnight – though nothing about the EA surprises me any more) and has been given 28 days to clean up what is now deemed to be a non-compliant discharge. Or else.
Now, sending a couple of heavies round to browbeat individuals in this way is not how I expect a government agency to behave. But assuming that there is even some irregularity in the quality of the discharge, expecting a remedy to be achieved within 28 days is utterly unreasonable.
We do indeed have a problem with phosphate pollution on the Somerset Levels. I was among the first indeed, to warn that the area could lose its internationally protected status unless there was urgent action to clean up the waterways and remove the threat to all that swims, crawls or wriggles within them.
But as the figures show discharges from sewage treatment plants – overloaded because they have not been upgraded to cope with the huge new housing estates in the Parrett and Tone basins – remain responsible for by far and away the greatest proportion of detrimental effects on water quality.
Have the water companies been given 28 days to clean up their act?
No. According to the latest intelligence they are merely being required to include proposals for improvements in their next five-year plan – accompanied by a statement from your department to the effect that it is unreasonable to expect things to get better overnight.
Only once all the cleaning-up has been achieved locally will farming then become the primary source of pollution on the Levels. And while I applaud the fact that the Environment Agency appears keen to get ahead of the game (for once) it is entirely unreasonable to force such a timescale on individuals, as has been the case with my constituent.
The EA has set new standards for failure over the last decade: presiding over the steady decline in local water quality; failing to detect illegal tipping near Bristol until the city’s water supplies were threatened; and through its blind over-reliance on computer modelling rather than local knowledge being largely responsible for the catastrophic floods of a decade back. Perhaps by getting tough with farmers it believes it can restore its reputation as an effective, efficient water watchdog.
On the other hand by placing unreasonable and unachievable demands on the industry it could merely be taking the first step towards fulfilling a hidden agenda to clear livestock farming off the Levels completely. Would you care to comment?
Yours ever
Ian