Countryside Stewardship 2019

[Goatherderess]

It took me quite a few days and much stress to get my application in on time this year. I have about £20K of capital works, half of which are hedge laying/replanting/tree pollarding etc.

I had a letter yesterday saying that my application is still being verified and they will give me an answer on the 28th Feb 2019. This means I lose the most important 2/3 months of the hedge-planting time and then can't start again until next winter and the capital works have to be done within 2 years of the agreement start (which will be Jan 2019).

I only have 80 acres and my application was dead simple. Anyone else in the same boat?

 

[Feldspar]

We've had our big application over 1000+ha returned, signed and agreed ages ago. 2nd application for 150ha is in the same situation. No rhyme or reason. I would suggest ringing them up and chasing them. I did that for our first application and it was posted that day (although they didn't claim the two things were related).

 

[tinsheet]

Still waiting to hear! Got a fair hedging plan, need to get on with it!

 

[Brisel]

Mine didn't get sent until last May for a 1st Jan 2018 start, including lots of capital works like hedges. I didn't do anything just in case, but finally signed it all off in October after going backwards & forwards with the many errors in their figures. It's well worth checking as some options could see you locked in for 10 years...