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Minister gets green watchdog plan Minister gets green watchdog plan
(20 minutes later)
Proposals for a new independent pollution watchdog with tough policing powers are being handed to Environment Minister Arlene Foster.Proposals for a new independent pollution watchdog with tough policing powers are being handed to Environment Minister Arlene Foster.
Conservationists have welcomed plans to set up an environmental protection agency, but farmers fear more red tape. The review recommends returning planning policy to the DoE and suggests that the new watchdog would have powers to challenge planning decisions.
The review recommends the return to the DoE of planning policy. It suggests that the new watchdog would have powers to challenge planning decisions. Conservation groups, such as the RSPB, have welcomed the proposals.
But with hundreds of jobs involved, the executive will not rush its decision. However, Kevin Sharkey of the Ulster Farmers' Union said its members feared the move would add more red tape.
Kenneth Sharkey, president of the Ulster Farmers' Union, said the move would complicate matters.
"We have a problem with adding additional layers of bureaucracy into the system, additional layers of cost and an overlap of somebody else doing a job that has already being done," he said."We have a problem with adding additional layers of bureaucracy into the system, additional layers of cost and an overlap of somebody else doing a job that has already being done," he said.
Aidan Lonegan of the RSPB said the introduction of an independent watchdog was long overdue.
"We are the only part of the British Isles that doesn't have such an agency and we deserve one," he said.