Water Protection: Rules 6, 7 and 8 – Soil Protection
Sunday 29th April 2018 in Uncategorised
Rule 6: reasonable precautions to prevent soil erosion
You must take all reasonable precautions to prevent significant soil erosion and runoff from:
- the application of organic manure and manufactured fertiliser
- land management and cultivation practices (such as seedbeds, tramlines, rows, beds, stubbles (including harvested land with haulm), polytunnels and irrigation)
- poaching by livestock
Rule 7: protecting against soil erosion by livestock
Any land within 5 metres of inland freshwaters and coastal waters must be protected from significant soil erosion by preventing poaching by livestock.
Rule 8: position of livestock feeders
Livestock feeders must not be positioned:
- within 10 metres of any inland freshwaters or coastal waters
- within 50 metres of a spring, well or borehole
- where there is significant risk of pollution from poaching around the feeder entering any inland freshwaters or coastal waters
How the Rules were Written
These rules for water were developed with farming and environmental organisations as a baseline of good practice, based on the well established Code of Good Agricultural Practice.
Defra consulted on a proposed set of rules at the end of 2015 and there was a positive response from most respondents for introducing the rules into law. The rules have been adapted based on feedback from the consultation to make them practical and risk based to prevent and reduce agricultural pollution.
The rules took effect in April 2018.
Follow this link to find Defra’s Explanatory Note.