asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in view of the potential loss of agricultural land, if he will make a statement regarding his Department's dealings with Dow Chemicals, concerning the stated intention of Dow Chemicals to set up a plant in the constituency of Brigg and Scunthorpe and their subsequent change of mind.
On 3rd June we were consulted by the Glandford Borough Council on a proposal by DOW Chemicals Limited to develop 470 acres of land in agricultural use for industrial purposes. On 11 th August local officers of my Department attended a meeting held by local planners with a representative of the company to discuss the effect of the proposed development on the land including drainage, sea defences and the future agricultural use of land not immediately required for construction purposes.On 13th September a reply was sent to the council explaining that the proposal had been considered in the light of the Government's policy for safeguarding agricultural land as set out in paragraph 3 of the Department of the Environment Circular 75 of 17th August 1976 on "Development involving Agricultural Land". While recognising the arguments in favour of encouraging industrial
| All prices in £/100 kg | |||||||||
| Item and CCT No. | Common Levy | ACA§ | MCA | Net Import Levy | |||||
| Common Wheat (10.01 A) | … | … | … | 6·35 | 0·65 | 2·1267 | 3·57 | ||
| Barley (10.03) | … | … | … | … | … | 5·63 | 0·69 | 1·8821 | 3·06 |
| Maize (10.05 B) | … | … | … | … | … | 5·43 | 0·68 | 1·8931 | 2·86 |
| White Sugar (17.01 A) | … | … | … | … | 18·88 | — | 5·866 | 13·01 | |
| Butter 82–84 per cent. Fat Content* (04.03 A) | 140·52 | 19·51 | 36·693 | 84·32 | |||||
| Cheddar Cheese* (04.04 EIb1bb) | … | … | 128·63 | 6·78 | 30·471 | 91·38 | |||
| Skimmed Milk Powder (04.02 AIIb1) | … | … | 66·76 | — | 16·804 | 49·96 | |||
| Boneless Frozen Meat (02.01 AIIb4bb33) | … | 150·33 | 8·08 | 34·309 | 107·94 | ||||
| Lard (15.01 AII) | … | … | … | … | … | 9·40 | — | 5·543 | 3·86 |
| Pigmeat Carcases (02.01 AIIIa1) | … | … | 29·39 | — | 17·322 | 12·07 | |||
| Salted Bacon Sides (02.06 BIa2aa) | … | … | 39·67 | — | 23·384 | 16·29 | |||
| Eggs (04.05 AIb)† | … | … | … | … | … | 34·18 | — | 4·824 | 29·36 |
| Poultrymeat 70 per cent. Chickens (02.02 AIB)‡ | 17·79 | — | 4·139 | 13·65 | |||||
| * There are special rates for New Zealand butter and cheese. | |||||||||
| † Includes a supplementary levy of £15·30/100 kg (applicable on imports from certain countries of origin). Regulations provide for supplementary levies to operate in this sector when average free-at-frontier offer prices fall below sluicegate prices. | |||||||||
| ‡ Does not include supplementary level of £11·48/100 kg which at present applies to imports from Spain only. | |||||||||
| § All remaining ACAs will be abolished on 1st January 1978. | |||||||||
development on Humberside we believed that more consideration was needed of the land use implications of the proposal. Meanwhile, our advice was that planning permission should not be granted because good agricultural land would be taken for development although land of poorer quality appeared to be available for development in the area.
We were subsequently informed that for commercial reasons the company had withdrawn its planning application.