It took over four years from conception to completion, cost over 拢1 million, with countless obstacles to overcome, but six farming businesses are finally feeling the benefits of a 270,000 cubic metre reservoir in the heart of the Norfolk Broads.
The reservoir at Neatishead, near Wroxham, offers the businesses water security, helps the environment and allows the continued growing of high-value crops including soft fruit and baby leaf lettuce.
Businesses came together to work on the project at the instigation of grower Tim Place, as existing ground water abstraction licences came under threat due to concerns about potential environmental impacts.
Tim said: 鈥淭his project has brought together six farmers to share and secure irrigation water. It came in on time and on budget and has now secured our future. Businesses are taking water out and using it to grow high value crops.鈥�
Tom Blofeld, one of those involved, said: 鈥淲hen you look at the economies of scale, we don鈥檛 have enough land to justify a project like this. You need to be a group. We needed to be this size because of our various land holdings.
鈥淏etween us a group we had to trust each other, and we have to trust each other for 25 years minimum due to the investment. That way the whole project works.
鈥淭his is about being a band of brothers, getting together and working together so that the project makes economic sense.鈥�
Abstraction licences under threat
Groundwater abstraction licences in the Norfolk Broads came under increasing pressure following a public inquiry centred on Catfield Fen in 2016. This ruled that it could not be proven, beyond reasonable scientific doubt, that abstraction would not adversely affect this environmentally-protected site.
This prompted a wider Environment Agency (EA) review of abstraction licences in the Broads, and among those subsequently revoked were Place UK鈥檚 licences at Tunstead and Neatishead.
鈥淲e worked with our then local MPs Duncan Baker and Jerome Mayhew, who supported us and organised meetings with the Defra Minister and the Environment Agency directors but failed to obtain any support for our rural businesses,鈥� said Tim.
鈥淥ur local irrigation water abstractors group, BAWAG had been actively helping to resolve these radical changes by bringing abstractors together, carrying out ecological and hydrological site surveys of the fens and proposing an alternative solution to ensure the fens were well protected. This was unfortunately rejected by the EA and licence changes were confirmed.
鈥淭he UK Habitat Regulations are so strong, as they contain the precautionary principle within them, that everyone was powerless to help look at a balanced solution to resolve the perceived problem. The environment has a trump card.鈥�
Working together to find solutions
Determined to secure the future of the soft-fruit, water-dependent business, Tim looked for other solutions. He decided to invest in a rainwater capture and reservoir system for Tunstead and investigated how to solve the problem at Neatishead.
鈥淚 realised that other farmers in this area were also affected by the licence cuts and wondered if they wanted to be part of a solution,鈥� he said.
鈥淲ith the help of John Adlam, our water adviser, we put together a 270,000 cubic metre project proposal to build a reservoir to share with our neighbours. In return, they would allow a water abstraction pipeline to cross their land and access the river network to be able to apply for a winter surface water abstraction licence.
鈥淎s Bure Farm Services already worked with farms in this area there was a very good collaborative relationship already established.
鈥淣ick Deane, who manages the group, worked with us in February 2021 to draw up a requirement for each farm to help calculate the total volume we required.鈥�
Local landowners met in July 2021 to discuss the proposal, with further meetings taking place to look at costs and the best way of working together.
The final farming consortium comprised Tim with Nick and Christopher Deane, Harry and Samuel Buxton, Sir John and Tom Blofeld, Louis and Fran Baugh and Ian and Jo Willetts.
Securing water for the future
It was vital for Ian and Jo to be involved as a pipeline crosses their land to one of the abstraction points. They have a supply agreement from the reservoir, but not a capital commitment.
Louis needed water to continue growing potatoes and baby leaf salads, after being informed he would lose his groundwater abstraction licence.
Louis said: 鈥淲e all understand the environmental pressures and knew what the solution was. But if you go into such a long term, capital intensive project you have to have 100% confidence in partners.
鈥淎lso, this will be for more than one generation so it鈥檚 deep-seated trust.
鈥淚t has secured the water for the future but it鈥檚 also given us flexibility, something difficult to achieve on a standalone basis.鈥�
Nick said: 鈥淚t is all legally tied up, but if the trust hadn鈥檛 been there it wouldn鈥檛 have worked. The historic working relationship between all of us kicked all this off.鈥�
They agreed to work together under a water management agreement with one partner, Tim Place, taking the lead as project manager.
A race against time
Tim explained: 鈥淚 realised that the project needed to start quickly or we would not complete it before our licences were revoked.
鈥淭he EA refused to give us the same time to adapt as they had given to the public water supplier similarly affected. We had a race on our hands to complete this project by the EA-imposed deadline of October 2024.
鈥淚 therefore offered to fund the project and size it for everyone, if they gave an initial commitment to take a share of the water.鈥�
Tim contacted Andrew Hawes, a geotechnical engineer and reservoir specialist, to advise the group on construction. Quotes were obtained for the pumps and pipelines required for the project and for reservoir construction.
After confirming a suitable site, calculating the total volume of water each business required, and agreeing their working agreement, the project was good to go in January 2022. Tim had the green light to obtain the necessary water abstraction licences, planning permission and a RPA water grant to help with the 拢1.1 million costs.
However, the process was far from plain sailing. Before construction started, the challenges included:
- 13 months to gain an abstraction licence, even using the EA鈥檚 fast-track system
- Delays in obtaining planning permission as planners required the abstraction licence to be granted first and surprisingly treated the project as a 鈥榤ajor鈥� planning application rather than using the previous permitted development system.
- Problems in securing a water management grant from the Farming Transformation Fund, which was to pay 40% of the construction costs.
More hurdles to overcome
Tim said: 鈥淔irst of all you have to know if a grant is available but you can鈥檛 do that until you have an Environment Agency licence, and planning permission. That鈥檚 going to cost about 拢60,000 to 拢70,000.
鈥淭hen you can apply for a grant, but you don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 going to be accepted until a year or so later, by which time the costs have gone up and everything may have changed.
鈥淲e had two years鈥� notice of our licence revocation and the reservoir process takes four years. The EA has said it will give people four years, but not in the Broads.鈥�
Harry said: 鈥淲ith no water, Tim has no business and without Tim we would have possibly given up at an early stage because of all the barriers.鈥�
The grant was finally approved on 24 July 2023, with construction getting under way in August, but the challenges continued. Construction was hampered by heavy winter rainfall and the discovery that the clay wasn鈥檛 suitable for lining the banks.
It had to be lined with a plastic membrane instead, with a six-foot-high fence, then needed to keep out people and wildlife, also adding to the costs.
Even so, the project came in on time and only 2.6% over budget.
Proud of the achievement
The reservoir is served by winter-fill abstraction licences covering the rivers Ash, Ant and Bure, which have strict hands-off flow conditions to protect the environment.
The irrigation system is designed to run automatically stopping, starting and adjusting the flow rate by varying the speed of different pumps to enable up to five large reel irrigators to operate at the same time, along with a separate pump system operating the trickle irrigation network.
There is remote access to the control system, allowing operators to control and view the operation of the system anywhere, on their mobile phones.
The consortium has first call on the water but can supply other local businesses, if surplus water is available.
The first crops to be irrigated were raspberry canes in enclosed polytunnels in February, with spray irrigation starting on baby salad crops in March.
The project was close to completion when Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her Budget, introducing punitive changes to inheritance tax. How did the farmers think that would affect a long-term investment like this in future?
Harry said: 鈥淲hen I started farming in 2006, Nick advised me that you can only control the controllables. And that鈥檚 true, whether you are talking about the weather or about politics. You can鈥檛 control what someone鈥檚 going to do at Westminster. We can only try and make it good for the present moment in time.鈥�
Discussing the lessons learned, Tom Blofeld said: 鈥淲e would have liked the Government to make it easier.
鈥淭im overcame what I thought were some totally unnecessary obstacles, given the Government wanted us to do this. But we got there and we鈥檙e proud of it.鈥�