Deadline for NVZ appeals looming

Farmers who now find themselves part of a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) following the extension of the zone from 1 January, or who were previously in an NVZ, are being urged to double check their designation and if necessary lodge an appeal by the end of the month.

The opportunity to appeal against designation has been achieved thanks to sustained lobbying by the NFU – and is an option available to farmers in all NVZs. The deadline for lodging an appeal is January 31, but following NFU pressure, farmers have until March 10 to submit further supporting evidence.

Land is designated as an NVZ if it drains to a water body classed as ’polluted’ because it has or is predicted to have nitrate levels over 50 mg/l, or if nitrate is causing an undesirable disturbance in the ecology.

For an appeal to be successful, farmers will need to show that the designation of their land has resulted from a mistake in applying the designation method – in other words the land has been assessed as draining to the wrong water body or the water body into which the land drains has been wrongly classed as ’polluted’.

An appeal can be made by completing a simple application form, but to make the process as straightforward as possible, the NFU has also produced a step-by-step guide that is available to all members via the website: www.nfuonline.com.

Commenting, land use and environment adviser with the North West NFU, Helen Little, said: "The potential financial impact of finding yourself in an NVZ is considerable, so it is well worth double checking your designation.

"The NFU has lobbied long and hard to achieve this appeals process and while it’s hard to predict how many mistakes there will be, it is obviously very important that farmers lodge an appeal if they suspect their designation has been made in error."