Catfield Fen News Today

Victory for couple shows continuing role of European nature conservation laws in post-Brexit Britain

Norfolk couple Tim and Geli Harris have won a judicial review against the Environment Agency, concerning water abstraction at Catfield Fen, in the Broads.

Tim and Geli Harris to take agency to high court over groundwater removal for farming near protected wetlands

Works to restore the Catfield Fen site of special scientific interest (SSSI) on the Norfolk Broads have won unanimous approval from Broads Authority members.

The RSPB is seeking planning permission to revive a Broads fen, amid claims it is in ‘unfavourable decline’ as a conservation area.

The owners of Catfield Fen have launched a High Court challenger over water abstraction plans, claiming a review of licences across the Broads is not wide.

Tim and Angelika Harris say they want to protect "these unique environments for future generations".

Mr Harris sought a legal opinion from Stephen Tromans QC, one of the countrys leading environmental lawyers, which he has sent to EA chief executive Sir James Bevan. It says the EA has a legal duty "to take appropriate steps to avoid damaging European sites, not to wait to for evidence to be presented to it of damage having taken place", and that it is "already fully aware that abstraction is threatening wider areas". Mr Tromans concludes the current Restoring Sustainable Abstraction (RS...