CLA East blog: Water management

In the eight weeks since I joined the CLA as Regional Adviser, water abstraction and upcoming licence changes have dominated many conversations. I’ve been meeting with and listening closely to members, local stakeholders and Water Abstractor Groups, exploring on-farm innovation first-hand, and identifying the best ways to support our members. A topic which has become even more acute with the recent dry conditions.

In The Broads Special Area of Conservation (SAC), the Environment Agency has received the latest modelling outputs and are analysing them based on an updated model which now factors in spray-irrigation volumes, based on evidence from the Ant Valley Public Inquiry, by adding those volumes to rainfall inputs. The EA will be contacting affected licence holders over the coming weeks.

I have been working closely with Matthew Doran, the CLA’s national water lead and we will continue to lobby for water resilience, pushing the priorities highlighted in the CLA’s water strategy.

In June, the EA published its National Water Framework for Water Resources 2025, building on the 2020 edition. The framework assesses England’s long-term water needs, current and future pressures, and prescribes actions for resilient supplies and a healthier water environment. Section 5 outlines the steps the EA are taking to secure sustainable abstraction.

We continue to raise the importance of water with ministers, MPs and civil servants, in particular to ensure that it is simpler and quicker to achieve planning permission for on farm reservoirs, funding to build them and licences to fill them.

For members with any water abstraction related queries, please contact me on 07525 196 838 or peter.ewin@cla.org.uk