Farmers no longer forced to invest in extra slurry storage

NORTH West farmers who fall into what is known as a ‘purple area’ may no longer have to pay for expensive additional slurry and poultry manure storage thanks to NFU lobbying against Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs).

The purple areas cover about 5,000 farms in England - this equates to 6.5% of the total NVZ area. One of the largest purple areas is in the county of Lancashire.

Purple areas are places where the NVZ rules governing additional storage for slurry  and poultry manure, no longer apply due to NFU lobbying or are being maintained by Defra as NVZs on a precautionary basis pending further monitoring results.

NFU’s Environment and Land Use Adviser, Helen Forrester, believes approximately 1.5% of the 6.5% area covered by the purple patch, can be found in the North West region.

Mrs Forrester said: “This success is solely down to the hard work of the NFU, no other stakeholders have been involved.

“The NFU made the case that it was not reasonable to require farmers to invest in additional storage now when most of the purple areas had been retained as NVZs purely on a precautionary basis and may be de-designated at the next round of designations. This could have meant some farmers finding they were no longer subject to the NVZ storage requirements only a year after they had installed the additional storage.”

Any farmer in an NVZ which lies within a purple area will not need to comply with the current NVZ Action Programme rules requiring additional storage for slurry and poultry manure storage by January 01, 2012.

The NFU has achieved this through sustained effort over a number of years since Defra first published its proposals for the NVZ Action Programme in 2005. This has included lobbying of MPs at constituency level, and Ministers and civil servants at national level.

Farmers wishing to find out if they are in a ‘purple area’ can ask the NFU for help by calling 01695 554900.

>> Or check the map yourself by visiting the ADAS website via this link - NVZ Map

 

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