Country Land and Business Association

You are here : Policy Work » Environment

Managing the Rural Environment

Managing the Rural Environment

CLA Policy On The Environment

The rural environment is a key issue for the CLA. All of our members work on or surrounded by the rural environment, as providers of fibre, food, fuel, game, habitats, landscapes, minerals, rural tourism, timber, land and buildings. They have a real desire to preserve its value for future generations.

The CLA calls on the Government to:

  • Encourage the efficient use of water in agriculture,
  • Promote reservoirs on farms by deregulating their use where there is no significant risk to human safety, and
  • Introduce a more flexible licensing system for storage so that abstraction can take advantage of high flows.

Other CLA Environment articles


Other CLA Environment topic web pages:


Report Fly-tipping - Don't Suffer In Silence

The CLA urges all members in the West Midlands and the North-West to report fly-tipping on their land to their regional offices. The pilot project recording incidents on private land has been extended to September.

If private owners forget to report incidents, the Government is likely to gain a false picture of the incidence of fly-tipping. Please ring your regional office if it happens on your land, so that they can report it, via The Landowner Partnership Project, onto the Flycapture database.

We have had some success in reporting incidents, but many remain unreported. The CLA is trying to address fly-tipping issues with Defra and the Environment Agency. Derek Holliday has re-emphasised the CLA's three-point plan to combat the problem at a meeting of he National Fly-Tipping and Prevention Group.

The CLA continues to lobby ministers to:

  • Ensure local authorities accept fly-tipped waste without charge to landowners,
  • Stop prosecution of those who have waste, especially hazardous waste, dumped on their land, and
  • Create a policy framework so that local authorities work with police and other bodies on a zero-tolerance approach to perpetrators.

Links to external websites

Defra: www.defra.gov.uk

Environment Agency: www.environment-agency.gov.uk

Natural England: www.naturalengland.org.uk

Voluntary Initiative: www.voluntaryinitiative.org.uk

Environment sensitive farming: http://www.environmentsensitivefarming.co.uk/

Farm Wildlife: Events, Case Studies and Discussion Forums for farmers helping wildlife on their land: www.farmwildlife.info

Farming Futures: http://www.farmingfutures.org.uk/


Environment - Policy news

Spreading milk to land
If you have to spread milk onto land, make sure you have registered the appropriate waste exemption from the Environment Agency.
[24 July 2012]


Environment - Consultation responses

Draft Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2013
The CLA is generally supportive of the main proposals, one of which will remove the need to require planning permission before then being able to apply for an Environmental Permit for waste operators with the caveat that guidance should be clear about...
[8 April 2013]

Less management prescription more outcome focus project
This project is part of Making Environmental Stewardship More Effective (MESME).  Its aim is to contribute to the development of an approach for agri-environment, which minimises the use of management prescription and provides a strong focus on...
[6 November 2012]

High Risk Reservoirs in England and Wales
Views were sought on proposals for how to designate large raised reservoirs as high risk and how the Environment Agency make provisional designations in the most appropriate way for reservoir undertakers, interested organisations and local communities...
[6 March 2012]

More environment consultation responses


Environment - Policy reports

Climate Change - 'Part of the Solution'
Our sector, representing farmers, land managers and associated businesses, is a central part of the response to the growing threat posed by climate change. We recognise the role played by agriculture and rural land use in the wider context of global...
[10 December 2007]

Climate Change and the European Countryside: Impacts on Land Management and Response Strategies
This report, part of the wider CLIO (Climate Impacts and Options) project, is based on a detailed study of 21 rural estates, representing a board range of biogeographical regions across Europe.
[25 August 2006]

Climate Change and The Rural Economy
This policy statement draws on the work of the CLA Climate Change Working Group. It focuses on the potential impact of climate change on owners and managers of rural businesses in England and Wales. It proposes ways to mitigate these impacts and to...
[3 August 2005]

More environment policy reports


Environment - Advisory handbooks

CLA63 - A guide to agri-environment schemes in England
Agri-environment schemes have been in operation in England for more than 20 years. They have provided an important income stream for farmers and land managers seeking to address wildlife, soil, water and other concerns as part of their business.
[25 July 2012]


Environment - Guidance notes

GN24-12 Changes to Environmental Stewardship 2013
The Fourth Edition Environmental Stewardship handbooks have been released by Natural England and include a number of changes, which have been made as a result of the 'Making Environmental Stewardship More Effect' (MESME) project.  The handbooks...
[29 November 2012]

GN16-11 Septic Tanks - Registering an exemption to discharge
Please refer to GN23-11 for an update.
[10 August 2011]

GN23-11 Septic Tanks - registering an exemption to discharge. The Environment Agency has agreed to a review of these regulations
On 6 April 2010 it became a requirement for householders to register discharges from septic tanks through the introduction of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (EPR). An environmental permit may not be required if you...
[19 September 2011]

More pollution guidance notes

Member LoginCLA Member Login





Remember me

Policy Contact


Derek Holliday
Head of Environment

Lead adviser on European and national environmental issues including water quality (Water Framework Directive, Catchment Sensitive Farming, Nitrates Directive), water resources, fluvial and coastal defence, soil resource, climate change and fisheries.

T: 020 7235 0511
F: 020 7235 4696
derek.holliday@cla.org.uk


Charlotte Lay
Conservation Adviser

Advises on Agri-Environment Schemes, Greening of the CAP, Species, Designated Areas, Biodiversity 2020 outcomes including Local Nature Partnerships and Nature Improvement Areas and Uplands

T: 020 7235 0511
F: 020 7235 4696
charlotte.lay@cla.org.uk

Media Contacts


Ollie Wilson
Director of Communications

T: 020 7460 7936
F: 020 7460 7962
ollie.wilson@cla.org.uk


Lisa O'Brien

National Press Officer

T: 020 7460 7934
lisa.obrien@cla.org.uk


Out of hours: 020 7201 9511

Join the CLA today


Join the CLA today Anyone who owns rural land or runs a rural business will benefit from joining the CLA.


Click here to find out how

The CLA Game Fair 2013


19 - 21 July 2013 Ragley Hall, Alcester, Warwickshire
B49 5NJ

CLA Member Ticket Box Office


Visit The CLA Game Fair website


© 2013 Country Land and Business Association Limited (CLA). All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as expressly permitted by law.

Disclaimer

No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action in reliance on or as a result of the material included in or omitted in this website can be or is accepted by the author(s), the CLA or its officers or trustees or employees or any other persons.

The Advisory Services are made available to members on the basis that members' rights to compensation and the liability (if any) of CLA and its officers and/or its staff advisers, are restricted in the following ways. In the event of any advice given by any CLA staff adviser being given negligently or otherwise being incorrect no liability whatsoever is accepted by the CLA or its officers or by its staff advisers concerned

(a) towards any person who is not the current CLA member to whom the advice was directly given,

(b) to any person in the respect of consequential loss or loss of profits, or

(c) to any person for any sum exceeding £50,000 in respect of any one enquiry (whether made or responded to orally or in writing and whether dealt with at one time or over a period of time).

Any person making use of the Advisory Services accepts such restrictions. Members should refer to appropriate professional advisers in private practice before taking any particular course of action potentially or actually involving any substantial amounts of money.

Please note that whilst the advisers are able to advise on a wide range of subjects relating to land ownership, they cannot act in place of a member's own solicitor, accountant, surveyor and tax specialist by, for example, drafting documents or corresponding on their behalf and may be precluded, by the rules of their own professions, from advising one CLA member against another CLA member in the case of conflict.

Solicitors Indemnity Fund . Solicitors in the CLA Legal Team are not covered by the Solicitors Indemnity Fund in relation to professional negligence in relation to any advice given by them.

Please note that from time to time telephone calls maybe recorded for training purposes.