| NATURAL LAW
PARTY WESSEX Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Email:
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com |
75 Fairfield
Rd Tel: 01962 852122 |
NEWS RELEASE
Dorset GM trial crop needs planning consent
NLP calls on District Council to serve 'Stop Notice' on GM maize at Over Compton
[Dorset Echo on this story - click here]
Date:
13 June 2000
GM crop needs planning consent
Mark Griffiths, Environment spokesman and 1997 West Dorset General Election candidate for the Natural Law Party, is calling on West Dorset District Council to serve a 'Stop Notice' under the Town and Country Planning Acts requiring the immediate destruction of a trial crop of GM maize at Over Compton on the Somerset border, near Yeovil.
The Natural Law Party is citing a court case which confirms that land growing crops used for agro-chemical trials does not constitute 'agriculture' but 'research'. The case indicates that agricultural land used exclusively for research and not for production purposes constitutes a change of land use requiring planning consent.
Local feelings ignored: GM-free Dorset
Mr Griffiths recently attended the public meeting at Nether Compton organised by the Department of the Environment, Transport, and the Regions to provide information about the trial crop. The Department confirmed that the trial is intended to test the effect on the environment of application of the chemical to which the crop has been genetically engineered to be tolerant.
"It was obvious at the meeting that local feeling is almost completely against this trial. People are particularly angry that the crop has been planted before they have had a chance to express their views on the subject. People feel that the whole process is undemocratic and that they are being bounced into accepting something which few, if any, wish to see in the area. People want to see a GM-free Dorset, and the law indicates that the local planning authority are in fact in a position to do something about this as far as GM crop trials of this kind are concerned."
Given that it is now too late in the season to consult people properly in this matter the Wessex Natural Law Party is asking West Dorset District Council to serve notices requiring both the landowner and those carrying out the trial to immediately destroy the GM crop before it starts to flower and to spread pollen. If the trialists still wish to continue after the crop is destroyed then the option is open to them to apply for planning consent for the next season when the application can then be subject to the usual public consultative procedures.
Neighbouring farmland at risk from GM contamination
The Natural Law Party points out that the trial site in question is little more than 50 metres from another commercial crop of maize on the other side of the A30 dual carriageway. This crop is being grown for cattle feed by another farmer and is clearly at risk of cross pollination from GM pollen generated by the trial. There is a real danger that GM contaminated material from the neighbouring crop will eventually end up in the food chain unless prompt action is taken.
Legal Precedent
The legal precedent indicating that land
used for research purposes does not comprise agricultural
use concerned a dispute between the landlord and tenant
of a farm in East Anglia. The landlord, Dow Agrochemicals
Ltd, wanted to carry out agricultural chemical research
on farmland occupied by the tenant, and had obtained
planning consent for research purposes which permitted
such activity on the land.
The judge held that because any crops to which the
chemicals were to be applied would be grown purely for
research purposes and were not being allowed to be sold,
or otherwise to enter the food chain, the use of the land
was not agricultural. The judge confirmed that "the
land is required for a use other than for agriculture,
for which planning permission has been granted on an
application made under the enactments relating to town
and country planning."
The Wessex Natural Law Party has received a letter from the farmer growing the GM maize at Over Compton confirming that the crop is being grown for research purposes and that the produce from the GM trial will be destroyed.
Notes for editors:
The legal precedent referred to is: Dow Agrochemicals Ltd vs E.A. Lane (North Lynn) Ltd, (1965) 192 EG 73
The Natural Law Party is active in over 100 countries around the world including all 15 EU member states and is seeking a global ban on GM foods.
More information on the dangers of genetically modified food and the Natural Law Party's campaign to ban genetically modified foods in Wessex is available at www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex .
Mark Griffiths BSc FRICS FAAV can be contacted on 01962 852122 or at nlpwessex@bigfoot.com .
Download briefing paper on Chardon LL - the GM maize being grown at Over Compton - PDF format
Return
to NLP Wessex GM page
Will GM crops deliver
benefits to farmers? - some realities behind
biotechnology myths
GM crops a threat to future
viability of farming in Hampshire
Dorset farmers react in support of
NLP GM warnings
Dorset Farmers advised to avoid
GM Oilseed Rape
Natural Law Party campaign to ban genetically modified foods in Wessex
