By Ewan Pate, farming editor

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) would be an unlikely contender to win a popularity contest if farmers held the votes.

In its relatively short 10-year history it has been responsible for implementing an increasing flow of regulation which may have helped the environment but has done nothing to make life easier for land managers.

That is one side of the story, but SEPA chief executive Campbell Gemmell has a different take.

He admitted this week that not everything had gone well but pointed the finger at others, particularly the NFUS, for delaying smooth implementation of new regulations. Union leaders had their own agendas and were not speaking for the whole industry in consultations, and, furthermore, he warned them not to go down the “Canute route” in trying to stop developments.

Mr Gemmell was speaking to the Scottish agricultural press on Thursday in an effort to improve relations between farming commentators and the regulator.

“I am determined that SEPA does the job which it was set up to do. I took over three years ago and I felt that insufficient effort had gone into welding the body together. It needed to be more integrated.

“The EU Amsterdam Treaty said that there should be an environmental regulator for each member state but there was no rule book as to how to do it.

“There are 37 regulators in the EU but only nine operate as SEPA does, encompassing everything from government to the practical applications. Operating as we do at a Scottish level should be a good thing,” he said.

However there do seem to be problems.

“We are trying to implement regulations across all sectors.

“Take the chemicals industry, which is used to dealing with regulations. They tell a straight, clean-cut story and their representative organisations speak for the whole industry. They have been used to regulations for 150 years.

“But the agricultural industry is a long way from that.

“Our engagement with them is not terribly good. Farming leaders have good access to ministers and the agricultural sector has had some protection from regulation and now, late in the day, when it is being faced with it, it sticks in the cra,’ ” he said.

Mr Gemmell said that in the last fortnight he had met Ross Finnie and Rhona Brankin, the two ministers responsible for the environment. Perhaps surprisingly, he admitted this was the first time he had met both together for over two years.

“Mr Finnie realises there are tensions across the sectors. None of us are happy with the situation, but we have to deal with it,” he said.

In fact Mr Gemmell, admitting that some of the regulations are far from clear cut, said, “The new waste regulations are not far short of a shambles. What is a waste product for instance? But the rules have been made and have to be implemented.”

For instance, tallow is classified as a waste product and only a temporary derogation is allowing it to be burnt as a green fuel rather than have it treated as an expensive waste material.

But he regarded the new water abstraction regulations as a dramatic step forward.

“Although implementation was clumsier than it should have been, it will seem better looking back. It is a proportionate regime. However there are still bales of straw blocking streams in low water.”

“We are not here to put farming out of business, but things cannot be as they have ‘ae been.’ I also have to bring colleagues in SEPA to the same start point. The scientists in white coats sometimes take a different view from those trying to get farmers to work with them,” he warned.

However the SEPA chief reserved his strongest criticism for the NFUS, which he felt was not always able to speak for the whole sector and often conducted disputes in public.

“Senior people have been campaigning for their own interests,” he said.

He cited the furore over field stones being treated as waste which would have to be taken to a licensed dump, accusing NFUS leaders and the press of making the most of the situation.

“The waste regulation is pretty ropey and field stones could be treated as waste, but it is unfair to say that this is a wacky idea from SEPA,” he said.

Mr Gemmell’s colleague, senior manager Rob Morris, also questioned whether the right people were coming from NFUS to meetings, suggesting too often they were policy people.

“We engaged with the industry for two years on water abstraction but it seems the industry was not able to take the issues on board and many of the problems arose right at the end of the consultation period. Too often it has proved to be convenient to give SEPA a kicking.”

“No other industry is saying that they should not comply with regulations. The paper industry operates on very tight margins and they can do it.”

But Mr Gemmell did conclude by saying individual dialogue with farmers is often good and encouraged them to phone SEPA with their queries.