A FARMER has been given permission to place a roof over his silage pit to comply with new agricultural pollution regulations. 

The Welsh Government’s Nitrate Vulnerable Zones regulations are intended to protect rivers and waterways from the effects of agricultural pollution. 

Clive Prichard, of Keepers Lodge Farm, next to the village of Llanishen between Monmouth and Chepstow, told Monmouthshire county council that covering the silage clamp – the concrete panels that form a wall around the pit – is intended to prevent water run-off and possible contamination, to comply with the new NVZ Regulations. 

The pit is 21.5 metres wide and 24.6m in length with its existing concrete panels on three sides that are 2.4m high.

The dual pitched, olive green cladding roof, with side panels, will add a further 4m to the size of the walls and a 2m high roof, taking the overall height of the pit to 8.4m. 

Council planning officer Helen Etherington said it will be seen “within the context of other functional farm buildings from both the public right of way and from more distant locations”. 

A bird box and a bat box will also have to be fixed to the elevations and it will be required that the dairy farms retains them as a condition of the permission.