In late 2017, Defra published its water abstraction plan which aims to:
- Address unsustainable abstraction
- Improve our access to water and
- Modern the abstraction licensing service
As part of the review we are working with the Agency to identify best practice in the way that ‘hands of flow’ (HOF) restrictions on surface water licences are managed.
The Agency wants to know:
- How you find out about flow restrictions on your licence being activated, for example, in times of dry weather? And how do you find out about de-activating the HOF when river flows recover?
- How well, or not, do you think the notification process works?
- How it could be improved in the future?
The Environment Agency is running a short online survey which can be accessed here.
By completing the survey you can help the Environment Agency to understand where improvements could be made to the ways flow conditions on abstraction licences are communicated, and help the NFU to best represent your views in any licensing improvements made in the future.