An environmental quango responsible for stalling Northern Ireland agricultural planning applications has burned through £2.3 million pounds of taxpayers’ money since it was founded just five years ago, AgriLand can reveal.
The body, Shared Environmental Services (SES), came under fire from Minister of Agriculture Edwin Poots earlier this year when the minister said he had rejected its austere restrictions on agricultural planning.
Despite being an entity unknown to many farmers, it’s understood that at one point more than 160 agricultural planning applications were stalled because of decisions it made.
Also Read: Poots rejects ammonia threshold at the centre of NI’s agricultural planning rowWhat is SES?
Councils took on responsibility for planning in Northern Ireland in April 2015. Up until this point, all environmental planning advice was provided by the Northern Ireland Environmental Agency (NIEA).
However, councils jointly established a second group called ‘Shared Environmental Services’ to provide further environmental advice on planning applications. Critics say this has resulted in duplication of services already provided.
SES is based at Mid and East Antrim Council’s offices at the County Hall in Ballymena, with its primary responsibility to carry out Habitats Regulations Assessments on planning applications and advise on impacts on Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs).
Controversy
The group was accused of “moving the goalposts” after it lowered its already stringent ammonia threshold from 1% to 0.1%.
This meant that if a farm is situated within 7.5km of certain designated sites (shown below in red, blue and green), its application for planning was likely to be denied.
It’s proved problematic for farmers trying to expand their businesses as well as those simply trying to replace existing farm facilities.
In October 2019, the UFU pushed for a judicial review on the grounds that the changes to the ammonia threshold had been made without adequate consultation. As a result, SES said it would withdraw its guidance.
However, instead of jump-starting the agricultural planning process, this resulted in what many describe as a “period of limbo”, during which time agricultural planning was effectively halted.
Information requested by AgriLand showed the service eats up almost £400,000 a year despite criticism over its necessity.
Notably, the figure continued to rise through 2020 despite SES’s refusal to give advice on new agricultural applications since October 2019.
A spokesman explained SES gets its funding through the Transferred Functions Grant provided to councils from the Department for Communities.
However, the Ulster Farmers’ Union questioned whether the spend was delivering any worthwhile return.
“The UFU has challenged the functions of SES and local councils should examine if they are delivering value for money,” a UFU spokesman said.
“However, more worryingly, is the complete lack of public accountability that allows SES to make policy decisions that can have a significant impact on the economy, environment and society without any form of scrutiny or formal consultation.
It seems that SES is the only public sector organisation that can operate without any form of overarching governance and reporting structures, which is extremely worrying.
‘Held to ransom’
One Northern Ireland farmer, who didn’t want to be named out of fear that speaking out would have ramifications for his planning application, said he had been stuck in the system for three years to no avail.
The beef and sheep farmer told AgriLand he had spent between £12,000 and £15,000 on his application for a free-range hen house so far. With no end in sight, he feels he is out of options.
The figure includes air modelling – a process which costs up to £2,000 every time the assessment is carried out – completed each time the ammonia threshold changed.
“What another organisation would do in a few days they spend months doing,” he said. “They are holding the country’s farming industry to ransom and they seem to be accountable to no one.
I only wanted to make the farm sustainable so I could pass it on to the next generation one day but this has become a nightmare. Where do I go from here? What do I do? They have made my life a misery.
“These people just don’t care what they are doing to you – you are just a number to them.
“It affects you mentally; the mental strain of it is one of the worst things. They treat you like you are some sort of moron.
“It’s like going for an exam and preparing to the best of your ability only to be told they are going to test you on something completely different.
“We’re told free-range is better but then when it comes to emissions we’re told it’s higher than colonised units and we can’t get planning.
“We need to remember what the first thing was that everyone wanted during Covid – good local food.
“The whole system is too unpredictable. I just wish I knew three years ago what I was getting myself into. If I knew then, I’m not sure I would have started.”