While work on the horticultural use of peat began in earnest this week with the first meeting of the Sustainable Growing Media Task Force, there are other areas of NFU work running on in the background that have direct impact on the peat issue. The first of these involves Department for Communities and Local Government’s consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework, which closes on Monday.
This framework lays down a set of ground rules which local authorities will have to adhere to. Our concern focus on the detail given to agricultural, horticultural and rural development, and the prominence of food production in discussions around countryside planning issues.
In particular are very concerned about the framework proposal that says local planning authorities should ‘not identify sites or extension to sites for peat extraction’ and that they ‘should not grant planning permission for peat extraction from new or extended sites’. Our concern is that this move to end planning permission for peat extraction pre-empts any approach that Defra’s Sustainable Growing Media Task Force may advise. In addition it is not at all clear or what grounds such a policy is being suggested, as no reasoned justification is presented to support an outright ban.
The NFU believes that there may be limited circumstances where new permissions for peat extraction are justified – the creation of biodiverse wetland habitat and recreation of peatlands being just one example. The fact is that such operations often require the extraction of peat to enable re-wetting of areas, and the only way this can be funded on any significant scale is if the extraction is undertaken by commercial peat extractors who are then able to sell the peat they extract. It appears that the National Planning Policy Framework would prevent such activity, raising serious questions about how well this area of policy is joined-up across Government departments.
In its response to the framework, the NFU has suggested that peat is dealt with in a similar way to fossil minerals such as coal, where a much more pragmatic approach has been taken. In the case of coal, the presumption is against development unless the proposal is environmentally acceptable, or can be made so by planning conditions or obligations. Or if it is not environmentally acceptable, development can be permitted if it provides national, local or community benefits which clearly outweigh the likely negative impacts.
The importance of the NFU position on the planning framework and peat was underlined this week when the issue was a focus of discussion at the Sustainable Growing Media Task Force meeting. What has been termed ‘the Somerset question’ was discussed several times by the task force and was raised with the Minister Richard Benyon during the meeting. It has been termed the Somerset question because there is a National Nature Reserve in Somerset that has been created as a result of peat extraction. Moreover the original extraction site was archaic peatland, i.e. the site was peat soil but it had been drained and not been an active peatland with any biodiversity value for many generations. At this site it is very clear than biodiversity has been significantly enhanced, and this process has been enabled as a result of commercial peat extraction.
You can read more about the NFU’s views on the National Planning Policy Framework here.
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