Industry must act responsibly after trust shown by Minister and regulator

As the autumn was developing prior to the announcement many were questioning how they were going to manage the forthcoming winter with Stores being far fuller than usual. Llyr Gruffydd has reacted in a positive and proportionate way to circumstances caused by this year’s exceptional weather and must be congratulated.

It must also be recognised the positive role that Natural Resources Wales has played supporting this announcement. As environmental regulators they saw the situation on the ground developing this year and realised that if no action was taken, there was a risk of slurry stores reaching capacity later in the year which could risk storage facilities and pollution incidents.

Can I thank Neil Sachdev, Chair of NRW, and his team for this approach. Thanks, must also go to each and everyone of you who have raised this with our elected o cials over the summer period.
Diolch o galon iddo chi gyd.

The extra spreading period comes with the same restrictions as are in place from 15 January to 1 March. These are no more than 30m per hectare (2,700 gallons per acre) to be spread at any one time with three weeks having to pass between applications on the same field.

While this is a temporary measure for this year, the trust the Minister and the regulator has put in the industry now needs to be recognised by the industry. We collectively need to be responsible for all of our actions this autumn and winter. With the respite of a month on the closed periods, there will be no reason for individual interpretation of the regulations to justify spreading from 15 November to 15 January.

If we abuse the trust and responsibility the government and regulators have invested in us this year, further discussions and movement on the regulations will be far more difficult.

The implementation of Dr Susannah Bolton’s review is ongoing. Proposals on the short-term recommendations are envisaged to be put out for consultation in the spring.