Tomos Dafydd Davies, the Welsh Conservatives’ lead candidate for Mid & West Wales at May’s Senedd election, has expressed his disappointment after the Welsh Labour Government put Wales’ farming sector under threat last week – by pushing ahead with plans to designate all of Wales as a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ).
The Welsh Labour Government said it had given Welsh farmers four years to take steps on agricultural pollution but, with incidents reportedly averaging more than three a week, said it will impose severe new regulations from the beginning of April. Both The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) and NFU Cymru have also criticised the decision.
Tomos Dafydd Davies said:
At a time when we require a relentless focus from Government on rebuilding from the pandemic, it’s ridiculous that the Welsh Labour Government should target a crucial industry and hit our farmers when they’re down. This will have a devastating impact on the industry right across Mid & West Wales.
Labour promised farmers up and down Wales they wouldn’t introduce these regulations while we were still dealing with the coronavirus crisis. The Welsh Government’s own Environment Minister had previously ruled out introducing these regulations in the Senedd Chamber on seven separate occasions.
This is yet another broken promise by the Labour Party and shows that farmers and the Welsh public at large can’t trust Labour when it comes to protecting livelihoods and the food security of Wales.”
