Natural Resources Wales have today announced the start of a consultation with Trade Union partners on proposals to changes to their staffing structure. NRW need to make savings of £13m by 2025/26.
The purpose of this is to refocus resources on the activities that will have the most impact on nature, climate and minimising pollution, as well as the statutory work they carry out.
James Evans MS has previously questioned the Welsh Government in June on what they are doing to address the staff capacity issues at Natural Resources Wales and raised concerns that they are under resourced to deal with the ever growing workload being placed upon them by the Welsh Labour Government.
James Evans MS said:
“I hear repeatedly how NRW do not have the resources to undertake management agreements on SSSi sites, to employ water bailiffs on our rivers, to investigate pollution breaches in a timely manner. The Welsh Government have added more and more responsibilities to NRW, like trade waste recycling or NVZ inspections, without giving them adequate resources to do so. It is short sighted to cut the budgets of NRW when the Welsh Government have a larger Climate Change budget than ever before.
"I feel for the frontline staff at NRW who are not being supported by the Welsh Labour Government at a time when so much is being asked of them.”
