English Nature is calling for tighter regulations on landspreading the spreading of paper pulp waste after claiming best practices are not being carried out.


The claims were made on 8 July in BBC1s Countryfile programme, which raised the question of whether landspreading of paper pulp waste by contractors was damaging the environment.


What we are looking for is a tighter system of pre-notification of when and where landspreading is to be carried out, said English Nature chairman Martin Doughty.


A statement issued by the Paper Federation before the programme said that in 1998 it had developed a code of practice covering the technical and management procedures for landspreading. Under the code, paper mills control a duty of care for the whole landspreading programme, including the contractors involved.


The Paper Federation code of practice was designed to try to avoid the apparent conflict highlighted in the programme, said director of business affairs Graham Barnard. It is considered unlikely that a farmer would change the use of his land to gain a one-off payment for landspreading of paper mill residues.


English Nature, which champions the conservation of wildlife and natural features, is proposing new guidelines and funding for the Environment Agency to monitor and police prospective landspreading sites.


Doughty said English Nature had written to environment minister Michael Meacher in conjunction with the Environment Agency to ask for tighter landspreading proposals to be introduced, including:

A minimum two-week notification period;

A four-week notification period where sites are deemed to be of national conservational value;

An increase in the fine for non-notification (now 10).


Story by Andy Scott