Farmers betrayed by Minister’s broken promise on NVZs says Plaid Cymru

Responding to the Welsh Government’s unexpected announcement that the whole of Wales is to be designated a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone, Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Minister for the Environment and Rural Affairs Llyr Gruffydd MS said:

“This announcement today represents the final breakdown in relationship between this Welsh Government and the agricultural community. Just months ago the Minister was reassuring the sector that it would be wholly inappropriate and insensitive to introduce these regulations during a global pandemic. Today she betrayed those words at a time when deaths from covid are as high as they’ve ever been. She has cynically and insensitively broken her word to Welsh farmers.

“Nobody doubts that parts of Wales are facing water quality issues that need addressing. Back in 2018 Natural Resources Wales outlined how 8% of Wales needed to be designated as nitrate vulnerable zones to tackle the problem. The issue here is that designating the whole of Wales as an NVZ is disproportionate.

“NRW’s Wales Land Management Forum sub-group on agricultural pollution recognised that there is no silver bullet solution and that a wide range of approaches is needed. But instead of working with the sector to strengthen regulations and target action where it’s needed the Welsh Government has gone for a blunt and unsophisticated approach that will have serious and unaffordable infrastructure implications for farms across the whole of Wales.

“This is just the latest example of the Government’s failure to work with the sector to co-design a more sustainable approach. For too long this Government has viewed farmers as a problem rather than part of the solution. If we are to successfully tackle this problem then we need everyone working together and pulling in the same direction. Today’s broken promise leaves that prospect further away than ever.”