Midlands farmers can apply for £5,000 water grants
© Tim Scrivener Farmers in the Midlands have a six-week window to apply for a grant of up to £5,000 from Severn Trent to pay for work to help protect watercourses from pollution.
The Severn Trent Environmental Protection Scheme (Steps) is a competitive scheme that offers payments to farmers in its priority catchment areas of Derbyshire and Leicestershire, as well as parts of Warwickshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire.
The funding can be used for infrastructure projects that cut the risk of diffuse pollution.
See also: Boundary and woodland grants open in February
Examples include paying for watercourses to be fenced off, establishing buffer strips, growing cover crops and installing water troughs.
Successful applicants will be paid a fixed grant price for each item up to a maximum of £5,000/year. The money represents an estimated 50% of the total cost of the capital expenditure.
Farmers can only submit one application each year, but they can apply for more than one project.
The company says farmers should ideally seek the advice of their local Severn Trent agricultural adviser if they are thinking of applying, as they can help with the application process.
Although there is a published list of projects that are eligible for funding, farmers can also suggest alternative items or measures if they can show there would be a clear water-quality benefit.
The closing date for applications is 18 March 2016.
Severn Trent funds the scheme on the grounds that if it can reduce the amount of pollution going into watercourses, which helps to reduce how much it has to treat the water it takes from rivers.
More detail of the Steps scheme is available on the Severn Trent website.
Alternatively, farmers can write to the Catchment Team, Water Resources, Level 5 South, Severn Trent Water, STC, PO Box 5309, Coventry, CV3 9FH.