UFU president Ian Marshall sues over pollution penalty

Ian Marshall is a farmer from near Markethill in County Armagh

The president of the Ulster Farmers' Union is taking legal action over how officials penalised him for a pollution incident at his County Armagh farm.

The union said Ian Marshall was treated "extremely harshly when a minor pollution incident led to the loss of thousands of pounds of income".

It said it had sought "for some time to make a challenge on points of principle that have considerable wider impact".

It said it wanted a judicial review to define what constitutes "intent".

'Huge increase'

In return for receiving European payments, farmers have environmental protection responsibilities, known as cross compliance.

The union said it wanted to clarify the definition of intent when breaches occur, as this "results in a huge increase in the level of penalty".

It said his application for leave to apply for judicial review against the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) was listed for hearing at the High Court on 12 November.

UFU chief executive Wesley Aston said the case was "not about pollution or indeed the scale of the incident.

"We accept there is no acceptable level of pollution," he said.

"What this is about is whether the NI Environment Agency and the Department of Agriculture were right to ignore the views of the independent external appeal panel in this case.

"It considered this was a negligent rather than intentional breach and had recommended accordingly.

"But NIEA/DARD then imposed significant financial penalties by disallowing a large part of the associated CAP (EU Common Agricultural Policy) payment, which is an essential part of farm incomes in Northern Ireland."

Mr Aston said that the union was not just supporting the case of Mr Marshall because he was its president.

A DARD spokesman said the department was "content that it followed the correct process in this case".

"As the matter is now subject to legal action, the department has no further comment to make," he added.