The Rural Bulletin: 26 October 2017

New guidance for adapting traditional farm buildings

Historic England has published new guidance on conversion or adaption of traditional farm buildings for modern use while preserving their historic significance.

However, local planning authorities need to step up their game to allow such development or risk the loss of these important assets, according to the Country, Land and Business Association. “The time has come to use it or lose it,” says CLA president Ross Murray.

“These buildings are costly to maintain so in order to sustain them we must encourage new uses to make them relevant, valued and viable in the future.” To read Historic England’s guidance, click here. 

Our Residential Building Consultancy team is on hand if you need advice on converting your farm buildings.

LGA calls for sharper penalties against fly tipping

The Local Government Associate (LGA) has responded to Defra’s latest fly tipping statistics – calling for councils to be able to apply fixed penalty notices for small scale fly tipping. 

Flying tipping in England during 2016-17 was estimated to have cost taxpayers £58m to clear up, according to data released by Defra – with the LGA calling this unpleasant, unnecessary and unacceptable. “This is money that could be spent on other services, like caring for the elderly, protecting children or tackling homelessness.

It is unacceptable that they are having to spend vast amounts each year tackling this scourge,” said Cllr Martin Tett, the LGA’s Environment spokesman. “When they take offenders to court, councils need a faster and more effective legal system which means fly-tippers are given hard-hitting fines for more serious offences.”

Glyphosate talks reach stalemate

EU member states have failed to reach agreement over renewing the licence for glyphosate for the next 10 years, leaving farmers in limbo ahead of the 15 December licence expiry. Even though the EU’s two leading regulatory bodies – the European Food Safety

Authority and the European Chemicals Agency - say that glyphosate is safe when used correctly, continued politicisation of the argument led to a stalemate at Wednesday’s (25 October) meeting. According to the NFU, this means a shorter reauthorisation period is likely to be debated at the next committee meeting. Earlier this week the European Parliament backed a non-binding motion to ban glyphosate by December 2022. 

Crop-based biofuels and palm oil biodiesel to be phased out

The European Parliament’s Environment Committee has voted to phase out support for crop-based biofuels by 2030, and to stop the use of palm oil biodiesel by 2021. However, food-based biofuels like bioethanol and crops grown on marginal land will be exempted. The vote conflicts with the latest draft proposal from the EU Council, which safeguards the role of first generation biofuels in the renewable energy framework. 

Although the committee proposed to increase the target for advanced fuel use, the EU biofuel chain claims the vote seriously undermines the EU’s climate and sustainability objectives. The committee also backed the use of biomass for electricity production. Its final decision is expected in December, although the vote in plenary is due in January 2018.