Farmer fury at flooded farmland

Farmers in Somerset are furious at the destruction of productive farmland in a bid to create more than 400ha of salt marsh and freshwater wetland habitats.

The land on the Steart Peninsula near Bridgwater is due to be flooded in autumn 2014, at a cost of £20m – but local farmers claim the money could be far better spent on protecting land and businesses from flooding by dredging rivers on the Somerset Levels.

“The Environment Agency claims it doesn’t have the money to spend on river maintenance, and yet farmers on the Somerset Levels pay levies for that maintenance,” said James Small, Somerset NFU chairman. “At the same time, they see vast sums being spent on destroying farmland for habitat creation at Steart.

“The Environment Agency claims it doesn’t have the money to spend on river maintenance, and yet farmers on the Somerset Levels pay levies for that maintenance.
James Small, Somerset NFU chairman

“The EA has a not-inconsiderable budget, and one of its mission statements is to protect the natural and working environment,” he added. “It all comes down to priorities, and if the government was serious about protecting farmland and businesses it would just take a tweak in policy to reflect what people really want on the ground.”

However, an EA spokesman said the money was ring-fenced for different uses, and failure to create new habitat to offset the loss from rising sea levels would trigger large fines by the EU. “Some people don’t like the project, but we have a legal obligation to create this new habitat,” he said.

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