North set for environmental protection agency

The North is edging closer to having its own environmental protection agency, it was claimed today.

As environmentalists intensified their campaign to have an agency established in the province, Friends of the Earth campaigner Lisa Fagan said there was a compelling argument for the body to be set up by British government.

“An agency is desperately needed if we are to urgently address issues such as the raw and inadequately treated sewage which is being released into our seas and inland waterways,” she argued.

“We also need a body which can tackle our waste management problem with dumps operating illegally or in breach of their licenses, factory pollution, agricultural pollution, the threat to our wildlife habitat from sources such as quarrying, the drainage of wetlands, ploughing.

“All of these issues have to be addressed as Northern Ireland is gaining the reputation of being a pollution blackspot and increasingly facing fines from Europe.”

The North is the only part of the UK which does not have an environmental protection agency.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency has been operating since 1996.

The Environment Agency of England and Wales was established around the same time. The Republic has had an agency since 1992.

In February, former Northern Ireland Office Environment Minister Lord Rooker appointed a panel of experts to look into whether there should be an agency in the province.

The Review of Environmental Governance’s three-person team has been conducting meetings in a Belfast hotel with non-governmental organisations, political parties and groups like the Ulster Farmers’ Union and is expected to publish its initial findings in late summer or early autumn.

It has already met the Coalition for Environmental Protection which involves Friends of the Earth, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the National Trust, Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland, Ulster Wildlife Trust, Northern Ireland Environmental Link, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, the Woodlands Trust and WWF.

Lisa Fagan admitted: “I would have to say at this stage the champagne is ready but it is very much on ice.

“We’re convinced the argument for an agency is strong.

“However we’re not taking anything for granted and while we believe we have the support of the direct rule administration as well as four out of five of the main political parties with the exception of the DUP, there is work also to be done with farming representatives and other organisations.”

The coalition announced plans for a public meeting next week involving Professor Richard Macrory whose report into the work of agencies in the UK has fuelled the campaign for one in the North.

Professor Macrory will address a public meeting next Thursday in Clifton House in Belfast.

James Robinson of RSPB urged members of the public to weigh in behind their campaign for an agency.

“We were delighted when the Government granted us an inquiry to examine the case for the creation of an EPA in Northern Ireland and this public meeting is a great opportunity for people to make their views known to those conducting the inquiry,” he said.