Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:17 pm on 20 September 2017.
I’m very glad that Joyce Watson asked that question because you and I have discussed this issue on a number of occasions. I wonder if, Minister or Cabinet Secretary, you would look at how we might improve the planning application process, in particular for super farms, to ensure that drainage and adequate slurry storage is really taken into account, because when a farm grows from 600 or 700 head of cattle to 2,000 to 2,500, the blight on the neighbouring farms is utterly unbearable. The pollution that runs into gardens, the pollution into rivers, the pollution not just, of course, from contamination of the water courses, but the pollution from the birds that flock to the grain and all the rest of it. And a super farm, if it’s well run, is an extraordinarily wonderful thing to behold. A super farm badly run is utter, utter misery for the people around it, and I really think that the Welsh Government need to toughen up on the planning. It’s a subject I’ve raised with you before and with your colleague next door to you, because I think the time is to act because there are more and more of them happening.