This is a subscriber-only article
Farmers have been warned by the president of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), Ivor Ferguson, that there is a “long battle ahead” with the NI Environment Agency (NIEA) over ammonia emissions.
“We used to think initially that this is just something that someone would run up against for planning permission when they came to apply for a Tier II grant, but it’s a lot more serious than that,” Ferguson said in Enniskillen on Monday.
Speaking at the first of the UFU’s annual roadshow events, he said that some civil servants in NIEA (which is part of DAERA) are pressing for extreme measures, such as de-stocking farms and removing permitted development from the planning process.
In NI, agriculture is responsible for 91% of ammonia emissions which is linked to nitrogen deposition and damage to sensitive habitats, such as blanket bogs.
However, Ferguson said on Monday that during a visit to a local bog last year an ammonia expert from Scotland admitted that it was not fully understood why some areas of vegetation were damaged, while other areas in the same bog were not.
You could nearly say there are a few people (in NIEA) infiltrated with organisations like Friends of the Earth, because they are certainly anti farming
He said that NIEA officials on the visit were adamant that a local
poultry farm was to blame for all the vegetation damage, and that the rest of the bog would be affected within weeks.
“You could nearly say there are a few people (in NIEA) infiltrated with organisations like Friends of the Earth, because they are certainly anti farming,” Ferguson suggested.
An expert working group, appointed by former DAERA Minster Michelle McIlveen and led by former UFU president John Gilliland, presented a report on ammonia to DAERA in December 2017.
Ferguson described the group’s recommendation for a ban on the use of tankers fitted with splash plates from 2025 as a “little unpalatable” but added that “if that’s what we had to do, and we had long enough to do it, I’m sure we could live with it”.
However, he said that NIEA officials estimated that the expert group’s recommendations would only reduce emissions by 27% in NI, which has led some civil servants to press for more radical mitigation measures.
Ferguson gave the example of a dairy farmer near Markethill, who was told that he would have to reduce his herd from 200 cows to 55 cows under the proposals suggested by some NIEA officials.
Planning
The proposal to remove permitted developments in the planning process would mean that farmers would have to apply for planning permission to build both new and replacement farm buildings of any size.
“I don’t know if they will get away with that or not, but I just want to point out that it’s something that’s on their radar. That’s the sort of thing we are faced with and that’s going to be an uphill battle going forward,” Ferguson said.
A UFU delegation is scheduled to meet DAERA permanent secretary Denis McMahon this month, ahead of the department publishing an action plan on ammonia.
Ferguson said that dairy, red meat and poultry processors in NI have already met the UFU on the matter and have shown support for the union’s lobbying efforts.
“We need all the support we can get on this. I think it’s going to be a long battle for us. Certainly, getting the rest of the industry on board has been a great help to us,” he said.
SHARING OPTIONS: