Flood alleviation tops agenda at county meeting

NFU members used a meeting this week in Montgokmeryshire to discuss numerous environmental issues including flood alleviation with Tim Jones, who is the north and mid Wales Executive Director for Operations at Natural Resources Wales.

NFU Cymru County Vice Chairman Adrian Jones said, “The starting point for us is that there cannot be an automatic presumption that agricultural land can be sacrificed as flood storage areas. We all need to recognise the importance of agricultural land and acknowledge that farming is a commercial interest yet it is not afforded the same consideration as, for example, industrial and commercial concerns.

“A sustainable productive agricultural industry is a critical yet disappointingly often undervalued asset for the UK not least now where we see the issue of food security high on the political agenda.

“NFU Cymru has been critical of the lack of government investment in flood risk management, and in particular watercourse maintenance with drastic cutbacks made to revenue budgets which affect the long-term life of defence structures where maintenance is no longer carried out. The reduction in dredging of rivers and watercourses has also exacerbated flooding in our opinion.

“Flooding does pose a risk to food security. The condition of our rivers and their ability to convey flood flows has been a concern of farmers for many years and one brought to the fore by the flood events of the past two years. Following the extensive rural flooding seen last year, many rural communities are concerned about the condition of our rivers. Some systems are choked by vegetation, sediment, collapsed banks and fallen branches which can be bad for both the environment and flow. It is here that farmers can make a real difference and NFU Cymru is lobbying for better regulation of watercourse maintenance; proportionate to the scale of the watercourse and works needed.

“Better regulation isn’t about handing over wholesale responsibility to farmers, it is about creating a set of practical rules for farmers and others to follow when clearing vegetation, de-silting channels or stabilising banks that allow a farmer to act in an environmentally considerate manner. Facilitating farmers to undertake maintenance operations on smaller watercourses should free up resources to manage our larger rivers.

“It is interesting to see that this idea is being trialled in England but the NRW and Welsh Government are yet to be persuaded of the merit of such a practical approach.”