Planning plea over UK’s water ‘scandal’
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has underlined the need for sweeping changes in planning rules if the mounting issues consumers and farmers are facing over both water quality and quantity are to be tackled.
Mr Reed, inset, was speaking in a cow shed near Ripponden, where the National Farmers' Union (NFU) staged its first summit on water, bringing together key industry and public sector figures, which he described as "a moment of immense change”.
The summit came as figures from the Liberal Democrats revealed while issuing a hosepipe ban Yorkshire Water’s average leaks equate to over 275 million litres of water being lost every day.
The party's Environment spokesman Tim Farron branded the situation a “scandal”, with the data showing Yorkshire Water was wasting 115 litres of water per household on a daily basis.
Sitting on a straw bale during a rare visit to a farm, Mr Reed had been reminded by NFU President Tom Bradshaw that having a dependable water supply was critical for farmers and of a commitment in Labour's manifesto that stated “food security is national security”.
He said: “If we don’t learn how to manage our resources, we’re not going to deliver on that critical manifesto commitment.”
Mr Bradshaw also told the summit the planning system was stopping farms from investing for the future, leading to a situation where the country only produced 17 per cent of its fruit and 50 per cent of its vegetables.
Ripponden dairy farmer and NFU Vice President Rachel Hallos, said while improving access to water was vital for farmers, who also needed to use nutrients, there was an acceptance in the sector that action was needed to cut pollution.
She said: “We are in a cow shed for a reason. Sometimes we need grounding. We have got to ensure that we have access to water all the time. We have got to get water quality right.
“I really worry about the cost implications of doing this, but if we don’t the future cost implications are far greater.”
Mr Reed said the limited amount of water left in Batings Reservoir, beside Mrs Hallos’ farm, represented "everything we need to know about what’s going on".
He said: “It’s not going to be easy – there’s no point in pretending it will be – but we have to get it right because the costs of failure will be higher than the cost of getting this right.”
Mr Reed added severe weather events used to be a once in 100 years event, but they had become commonplace. He said: “We have to adapt to manage that new reality. I really am grateful to the NFU for stepping up to the plate, for wanting to collaborate on how we fix this problem.”
He said while Sir John Cunliffe’s inquiry did not cover pollution from agriculture there were some “very demanding targets” to cut the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous in water, but the planning system was “far too slow”, preventing farmers from building on-farm reservoirs.
Meanwhile, a Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We understand how frustrating leaks are for our customers and would like to assure them that reducing leakage on our networks is a priority for us.
“Leakage is the lowest it has ever been in Yorkshire, and it’s something that we work on all year round. We reduced leakage by 15 per cent over the last five years, and will be spending £38m over the next five years to continue bringing the number of leaks down. We’re also working on a £406m scheme to replace more than 1,000km of pipework to make burst and leaks less likely.”
He added that the company recently recruited 100 extra leakage inspectors and they joined a team that is out and about across Yorkshire 24/7 and fixing, on average, 826 leaks every week.