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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Patrick Barkham

‘You need persistence’: the Norfolk couple who took on environmental regulators three times – and won

Tim and Geli Harris smile while walking together through tall grasses at Catfield Fen
When they bought their 460-acre farm about 30 years ago, the Harrises converted arable fields to pasture. Photograph: Ali Smith/The Guardian

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.

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