Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 20 September 2017.
Thank you for that response. I did raise this with one of your predecessors three years ago: the need to do more to empower landowners, farmers, environmental groups and so on to be responsible, within specific parameters, of course, for clearing river banks themselves, for example—that they should have the powers to do that within specific circumstances. I referred at that point to a pilot scheme that the Environment Agency in England was running, and the Minister at the time agreed that he would be happy to introduce a similar pilot scheme in Wales. Can you tell us whether that pilot scheme has been put in place, and can you also explain why we are still seeing increasing examples of complaints about agricultural land finding itself under water for large parts of the year?