Polluters and regulators who fail to stop pollution must quake in their boots when they receive a letter from the lawyers for Tim and Geli Harris. The couple, who farm 460 acres in the Norfolk Broads, have now scored a hat-trick of landmark legal victories to save an internationally important wetland after they won again in the high court this month. Lady Justice Lieven found that Natural England failed in its statutory duty to protect Catfield Fen from pollution after nitrates and phosphates washed from arable fields into one of the finest examples of calcareous fen in western Europe, home to 2,500 species including rarities such as the fen orchid, crested buckler fern, breeding bittern and swallowtail butterflies.
In a scathing assessment of Natural England’s inaction since the Harrises first reported the pollution to it in 2021, the judge said the cause of the pollution was “the most basic level of common sense” and required action by the government’s conservation watchdog. The Harrises have spent 15 years and £1.5m of their own money taking action to hold to account government agencies for failing to protect the fen, which is part of a special area of conservation (SAC), an internationally important wetland protected by law. The marshes lie within the Broads national park.
He fears that “regulatory inertia” is preventing pollution from being halted on waterways across the country. It’s a landmark judgment because it says they can’t just do nothing.” The couple are big fans of Dirty Business, the recent Channel 4 dramatisation of a maths professor and a retired detective’s battle against sewage pollution, the water companies and the Environment Agency. What we call the light side doesn’t have the money.
That’s where the money is. Of course it is.” Tim held senior roles in the shipping industry, collecting “the wages of sin”, before turning to environmental campaigning in retirement. They bought their farm, which came with a large chunk of Catfield Fen, in 1994, wanting to live closer to nature.
They turned their arable fields into pasture to prevent soils and pollution from washing into the fen, and continue to tend English white park cattle, sheep and rare-breed Eriskay ponies. There are places here where we’ve never been – they are pure nature.” Tim says: “It’s taken 1,000 years to create this and people could destroy it very quickly.” Geli adds: “If you water your plants with the wrong water, they die quite quickly.” The Harrises take conservation advice from the experts at Natural England. It was a very British occasion.
They have some very good people. The trouble is too many no longer have fire in their bellies. We respect them but we wish they had more ‘go’.” Natural England said it accepted the court’s verdict that it had not done enough to protect Catfield Fen but it would not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
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