North Wales Police (NWP) Wrexham Town has arrested a man in connection with criminal damage during Welsh farming protests yesterday (Monday, February 12).
The force was called to Rhosddu Road in Wrexham shortly after 2:10p.m yesterday after it received a report that a number of vehicles were blocking the road as part of an organised protest.
Superintendent Jon Bowcott said: “Early positive action was taken to deal with an isolated incident of criminal damage and a man has been arrested in connection with the incident.
“The protest has now dispersed, and North Wales Police will continue to monitor the situation.”
Welsh farmers were driving tractors past and blockading the street which hosts the office of Welsh minister for rural affairs Lesley Griffiths.
Welsh farmers are showing “concern and worry” towards Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) proposals, according to NFU Cymru.
The Welsh farming union has just concluded a series of roadshows as part of a member engagement programme it has been running since the launch of the Welsh government’s SFS ‘Keeping Farmers Farming’ consultation in December.
NFU Cymru president Aled Jones said “More than 2,000 farmers and members of rural businesses attended our nine events.
“This goes to show the amount of concern and worry that farmers have towards these proposals.
“Almost all of the comments fed back to us during these events gave a truly worrying picture of what farmers see the future of their farms looking like if these proposals stand.”
Jones said the proposals as they stand will have far-reaching impacts on Welsh farming, rural businesses and communities and that it is vital that the Welsh government listens to these concerns.
“Whilst the title of the consultation suggests Welsh government want to ‘keep farmers farming’ this will not happen if we are not profitable,” he said.
The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) has labelled the scheme as “the most important change to Welsh agricultural policy since the genesis of the Common Agricultural Policy in 1962”.
FUW president Ian Rickman said: “We have repeatedly consulted with our members on several versions of this scheme since 2018 and are now at the most critical stage of its development.
“While we have been successful in lobbying for certain crucial changes to the scheme since its inception, including the provision of a baseline payment, a number of significant barriers and questions around certain details remain.”
