The Ulster Farmers' Union has sought leave to apply for a Judicial Review against the DOE's implementation of new Farm Waste Regulations.

The UFU has lodged legal papers in Belfast, opening a legal challenge to the DOE's insistence that local farmers must individually apply for Farm Waste Exemptions.

During the Union's anti red tape 'Cut It Out campaign, the UFU revealed that it had received written confirmation from the EU Commission that the DOE's system of individual farm registrations for exemptions from EU farm waste rules, is not a requirement of the EU Waste Framework Directive. The Union will now use this information to press for a removal of the DOE's individual exemption process, which the Union has described as blatant gold plating.

UFU President Kenneth Sharkey said; "We believe it is not acceptable that a local Government Department is imposing a complicated registration system on every farm business in Northern Ireland, when it is clear that a much simpler, generic registration for the entire industry is acceptable to the EU Commission. This is proving to be a wasteful bureaucratic expense for tax payers. Unfortunately DOE have done nothing to simplify this process, despite our protestations and we have been left with no option but to pursue a legal challenge".

The DOE introduced new farm waste rules on 31 July 2006, without industry consultation, which effectively means all 27,000 farm businesses in Northern Ireland have to individually register in writing for exemptions to be able to handle farm waste and carry out what the Union describes as every day farming tasks such as using tyres on silo clamps.

UFU President Kenneth Sharkey said; "The whole application process which DOE is insisting upon is an unnecessarily complicated system of individual exemptions and licenses. We have put forward alternatives to DOE to simplify the process, but these have not been accepted. The EU Waste Framework Directive does not specify an obligatory individual registration process so clearly a much simpler administrative process is possible for Northern Ireland. We believe a much simpler 'generic' exemption registration process, which obtains the relevant necessary information from existing records held by a competent authority would be readily accepted by the EU Commission".

DOE have been urging farmers to register for individual waste exemptions before 31 July 2007. The UFU has advised it's members that this is a legal requirement, but farmers may wish to await the outcome of legal proceedings before considering their best course of action.