Following the announcement earlier this year of a new Welsh environmental body, Environment Minister John Griffiths has launched an eight-week consultation garnering comment and opinion on the changes.
The new Natural Resources Body, due to be fully operational on 1 April 2013, will replace the Environment Agency Wales, The Countryside Council for Wales and the Forestry Commission for Wales, in a move that the government say could save up to £158 million over the next 10 years. Former Environment Agency Board member, Professor Peter Matthews, was earlier this month named as the body’s first Chairman of the Board.
It is hoped that the new body will enable better sustainability and more effective management of Wales’ natural resources, as well as creating a more streamlined approach and keeping unnecessary duplication to a minimum. The consultation leads on from earlier groundwork, which established the necessary arrangements for creating the single body and took into account how it ought best be directed.
Speaking on the changes yesterday (13 August), Mr Griffiths said holding a thorough consultation was key: “This new body has a vital part to play in ensuring the health of Wales’ environment and its economy, so it is vital that we get the detail right.
“The new body must maintain the crucial work of three existing bodies in protecting Wales’ natural environment, maintaining its cultural and historic landscape and ensuring access to its countryside and coast. Importantly, it also needs to develop to meet the challenges of the future.
“I want to ensure that the new body has clear duties and powers necessary to deliver for Wales. This additional consultation will provide us with further views to shape the new body and I would urge those parties with an interest to feed into the process."
The consultation is due to take place in two stages: the first will examine the body’s responsibilities – specifically those relating to natural beauty, conservation, access, protection of historic landscape, and forestry –and identifying how fields originally covered by two separate agencies can be brought together, ‘rather than just transferred’.
The second stage of the consultation will focus on the ‘legal and working arrangements’ of the body, tackling issues such as regulations and enforcement, transitional arrangements and emergency response, including the transfer of powers under the Control of Major Accidents and Hazards Regulations (COMAH).
The consultation will run until 5 October 2012.
More information can be found on the Welsh Government’s website.
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