Ceredigion farming family fined for damaging rare flowers

A farming family has been fined £9,000 and told to pay an additional £10,000 in court costs and penalties for damaging rare plants on land owned by the National Trust. Lloyd Jenkins, along with his parents Margaret and David, pleaded guilty earlier this month to damaging a protected wildlife site over a period of eight years on land in the Mwnt area of Ceredigion. They were accused of not allowing sufficient space on the edge of certain fields to allow rare flowers to grow by spreading fertiliser, slurry and weed killer without permission. Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which prosecuted the family, said the damage caused a "serious decline in the number and variety of rare plants". The land bordering the Wales Coast Path in Ceredigion was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 2004. NRW said the fields were a natural habitat for rare flowers only found in arable land which were believed to have been brought to Britain with crop seeds thousands of years ago. It said the family ignored repeated warnings over several years not to spread fertiliser, slurry and herbicides in the field's margins without permission, adding that rules protecting the area were broken sev