NFU Cymru has welcomed the appointment of an independent chair to review the effectiveness of the Welsh Government’s Water Resources Regulations.

The union added however that the review must deliver practical changes to make the regulations more workable on farm.

The legislation requires that every four years Welsh Ministers must review the effectiveness of the measures imposed by the regulations as a means of reducing or preventing water pollution from agricultural sources and if necessary, revise them.

The Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies, has appointed an independent chair, Dr Susannah Bolton, Vice Principal for Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange for Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) to undertake the review.

NFU Cymru President Aled Jones said: “I look forward to meeting with Dr Bolton at the earliest opportunity to discuss the terms of reference of the review, to listen to her plans for undertaking the review and to invite her on farm to see firsthand the experiences of farmers across Wales who are trying to grapple with the costs and complexity of these regulations.

The union’s commitment to feeding into the review and proposing solutions is highlighted by the recent establishment of its own dedicated Water Quality Review Group, chaired by Martin Griffiths, a dairy farmer from Ceredigion.

Mr Griffiths said: “The appointment by Welsh Government of an independent chair to undertake their statutory review of the Water Resources Regulations is very timely given that our own review group met for the first time in early July.

“One of the first actions of the NFU Cymru review group has been to initiate an online survey, launched at the Royal Welsh Show.

“Farmers are doing their utmost to comply with the regulations, but we are seeing farmers being penalised, not because of any increased pollution risk, purely due to the complexities, impracticalities and inflexibility of the regulations and associated record keeping requirements.

“Our survey is seeking farmer perspectives of the regulations, whether that be record keeping, Nitrogen limits, planning issues, investment requirements, experiences of inspections or the impact of the slurry storage and closed periods that came into force on August 2024.