CLEAN river campaigners hailed a major victory today as the High Court closed a loophole that has allowed farmers to pollute rivers by spreading excess manure.

River Action welcomed the landmark ruling that farming manure can be classified as “waste” and subject to council environmental protection rules.

Lobbying by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) led to the watering down of farming rules aimed at cleaning up England’s waterways in 2018.

This has led to a loophole that has been used by some farming businesses polluting waterways by spreading excess animal waste on their land.

The subsequent run-off into local rivers, has caused nutrient pollution and Natural England in 2023 downgraded the status of the River Wye, a designated special area of conservation, due to a decline of key species, due partly to large quantities of manure being washed into the river from nearby farms.

Today, River Action hailed the ruling as a major victory in its fight against industrial-scale poultry production in Wye Valley.

River Action chairman Charles Watson said: ”This historic court ruling marks a major victory both for the River Wye and rivers generally across the nation and it exposes yet another attempt by the NFU to push back on important initiatives intended to end the blight of agricultural pollution in our rivers. 

“We believe the ruling clarifies once and for all that the intensive factory production of livestock is clearly an industrial manufacturing process, whereby the often-toxic waste that it produces must be treated as such.”

The NFU had argued in a judicial review that agricultural manure were a “by-product” and not defined as “waste” under the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) adopted by Herefordshire County Council’s Minerals and Waste Local Plan in March 2024.

The Hon Mrs Justice Lieven found that it cannot be assumed that manure will be used in an environmentally safe way and that given the environmental problems caused by chicken manure in the Wye catchment area, with narrow and specific exceptions, manure is “waste” in law up to the point it is sold or transferred to a third party.

Leigh Day environment team solicitor Carol Day said: “This means that people proposing new Intensive Poultry Units in Herefordshire will need to put in place proper arrangements for dealing the huge volumes of manure that is produced.”