CAGE totally rejects 5.43 in the strongest terms. The first priority of restoration schemes distant from a river should be to reinstate the maximum possible proportion of land surface, at a quality appropriate to that which was exploited. The sanction to relocate soil from Grade 1, 2 or 3a best/most versatile land makes it another saleable asset to be stripped from the neighbourhood and a way to justify a lazy and low-quality site restoration. Relocated soil may not perform as well as in its original state and the area of productive land is still reduced.

Agricultural land is a major contributor to landscape, the right-of-way network and to sense of place for rural communities, who choose to live in the countryside in spite of lesser services and inconvenience. Large scale removal of soils is an insult to the neighbourhood and to generations of farmers who toiled to improve them and pass them on to the future.