The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) has responded with concern to the recently launched Welsh Government Clean Air Plan, stating that it must not betray farmers.
The plan, launched last week, aims to improve air quality and reduce the impacts of air pollution on human health, biodiversity, the natural environment and the economy. The plan aims to work jointly across sectors to put in place evidenced based policy, legislation, regulations and investment to reduce air pollution in line with international air quality standards.
Furthermore, the Welsh Government stated it will introduce a new law to tackle agricultural pollution by, in effect, introducing EU Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) legislation for the whole of Wales, as well as a National Minimum Standards based on the verifiable standards in Cross Compliance.
Whilst this plan is focussed in the main on urban areas, the elements relating to rural areas could in fact undermine the good work that is already being done by our farmers while also devastating businesses.
By referring to the introduction of an all-Wales NVZ in the paper the Welsh Government is once again failing to respect both the scientific evidence and their own advisors, while also ignoring the drastic and devastating impacts on businesses and families such draconian and disproportionate measures would have.
The draft legislation, if introduced, would designate the whole of Wales as an NVZ; an area more than forty times bigger than the current Welsh NVZ area, and eleven times bigger than that recommended by Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
Given the severe warnings of NRW and expected crippling costs for Wales’ farming industry that would run into hundreds of millions, and the extreme uncertainty due to coronavirus and Brexit, this proposal is wrong and warrants a comprehensive impact assessment so Ministers, politicians and their constituents can truly gauge the likely impacts.
In addition, the introduction of the Cross Compliance Verifiable Standards into National Minimum Standards – a future regulatory baseline - needs to be given much more thought in terms of suitability for the industry as there are serious concerns about how our farmers will absorb the costs if the Basic Payment Scheme is phased out.