New Stewardship Agreement and SSSI

[Pan mixer]

After an enormous amount of paperwork, maps, form filling, measuring and the rest I have had my CS agreement agreed by the great and the good.

Much of the land is in a SSSI - all clearly marked on the maps etc.

Along with my agreement came the message that 'If any of the proposals are on land in an SSSI then I now have to apply again to a different branch of Natural England for permission'

Bureaucratic madness.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

After an enormous amount of paperwork, maps, form filling, measuring and the rest I have had my CS agreement agreed by the great and the good.

Much of the land is in a SSSI - all clearly marked on the maps etc.

Along with my agreement came the message that 'If any of the proposals are on land in an SSSI then I now have to apply again to a different branch of Natural England for permission'

Bureaucratic madness.

Join the club where you get officially screwed!!

 

[Stw88]

This really annoys me that you have to apply to natural England for permission for an agreement that they have written!!! I had to fill one in for an extension last year, which they then misplaced and rang one Friday afternoon last minute saying they must have this document this afternoon! Makes my blood boil but as we have a sssi have to be in a scheme or they were going to deduct our sfp.

 

[Flat 10]

After an enormous amount of paperwork, maps, form filling, measuring and the rest I have had my CS agreement agreed by the great and the good.

Much of the land is in a SSSI - all clearly marked on the maps etc.

Along with my agreement came the message that 'If any of the proposals are on land in an SSSI then I now have to apply again to a different branch of Natural England for permission'

Bureaucratic madness.

What would happen if you ignored this as obvious rubbish
I mean you can’t sadly probably as the risk is too great but you wonder if anyone would ever know

 

[Pan mixer]

I daren't ignore it.

 

[Pan mixer]

I know that it is sad but to have the threat of a percentage of my subsidy cut off is enough to make me leap through that hoop.

 

[unlacedgecko]

The sooner all these schemes grants and subs are abolished in their entirety the better.

 

[yellow belly]

write to your mp rattle his cage explaining it is costing you money(time) and defra money in administration (rpa natural england ect costs)

when the govenment has spent 285 billion on covid so cannot aford to waste money

 

[Brisel]

When I applied for Higher Tier, I was assigned a Natural England advisor because of the Scheduled Monuments & SSSIs on my farm. She was very good & got all the relevant permissions for me. This was before CS was transferred to RPA though.

 

[digger64]

The sooner all these schemes grants and subs are abolished in their entirety the better.

Why cant people see this ? All they do is create stress ,misery , send money to wasters and make the industry look like a dependancy culture ,whil;st depriving those who want to get on of opportunity .

 

[digger64]

write to your mp rattle his cage explaining it is costing you money(time) and defra money in administration (rpa natural england ect costs)

when the govenment has spent 285 billion on covid so cannot aford to waste money

And how many votes and "enviro browny points " will your MP get out of dealing with that ?

 

[Billboy1]

This really annoys me that you have to apply to natural England for permission for an agreement that they have written!!! I had to fill one in for an extension last year, which they then misplaced and rang one Friday afternoon last minute saying they must have this document this afternoon! Makes my blood boil but as we have a sssi have to be in a scheme or they were going to deduct our sfp.

we have some land in a sssi we've never been told we have to be in a scheme !?

 

[Stw88]

we have some land in a sssi we've never been told we have to be in a scheme !?

Depends what sort of sssi it is. Ours is heather moorland we were the only bit in the valley not in a scheme.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

we have some land in a sssi we've never been told we have to be in a scheme !?

Not compulsory, depends if it restricts your income on the land.

 

[Stw88]

No but when you get a letter saying there going to deduct your sfp because your not in a scheme you haven’t much choice. There wording was “ the land parcel is not up to standard” funny how reducing winter number by only 15 ewes made such a difference and was the up to standard. we never herd anything from them for the next 10 years till the agreement was extended on yearly basis.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

No but when you get a letter saying there going to deduct your sfp because your not in a scheme you haven’t much choice. There wording was “ the land parcel is not up to standard” funny how reducing winter number by only 15 ewes made such a difference and was the up to standard. we never herd anything from them for the next 10 years till the agreement was extended on yearly basis.

So you have an SSSI on a block of grazing land which had an agreement on it to reduce winter stocking?
If this is correct why was it not in a Higher Tier CS agreement?
You mention having been in a 10 year agreement so presumably you have some land in a stewardship agreement and this is now being extended on a year to year basis.
If I read this correctly then you need to start a new agreement and finish the other one at the end of the ten years, rather than roll it forward. I had pointed this out before that these roll overs do not remove any penalties that go back to the start of the scheme.

However if this block of SSSI land is not in the original scheme then it is not relevant to having deductions on the CS but may be over BPS if it is not complying with GAEC.

 

[ajcc]

Hell, I’m not in any stewardship agreements, have no sssi land.....but I used to be in css, I farm adjacent to a sssi and my landlord is the NT.
No bps this year too date, 30% deduction last year and 2 seperate court cases due within the month.
“Time people woke up and smelled the coffee.”

 

[Stw88]

So you have an SSSI on a block of grazing land which had an agreement on it to reduce winter stocking?
If this is correct why was it not in a Higher Tier CS agreement?
You mention having been in a 10 year agreement so presumably you have some land in a stewardship agreement and this is now being extended on a year to year basis.
If I read this correctly then you need to start a new agreement and finish the other one at the end of the ten years, rather than roll it forward. I had pointed this out before that these roll overs do not remove any penalties that go back to the start of the scheme.

However if this block of SSSI land is not in the original scheme then it is not relevant to having deductions on the CS but may be over BPS if it is not complying with GAEC.

We were in no schemes at all until 2010 (they had been trying for years to get us in) it ran its 10 years and has been rolled over. There was the option to end and start a new scheme but there would be a lot more rules and paper work and a lot less ££ so decided to keep going with what we already have as it was workable.
As to back dating penalties, we had a whole farm inspection in 2018 2 women here for 2 weeks going through things with a fine tooth comb. They couldn’t find anything wrong and we ended up with more land than we started with. If we had another one I would argue that any penalties could only be backdated till then as every thing was deemed acceptable and correct then. Therefore I felt it was safe to continue rolling over.

 

[ajcc]

After 15 years they will move the goalposts and use the EIA 2006 regulations to attempt possession without any payment. Lookout!

 

[steveR]

We were in no schemes at all until 2010 (they had been trying for years to get us in) it ran its 10 years and has been rolled over. There was the option to end and start a new scheme but there would be a lot more rules and paper work and a lot less ££ so decided to keep going with what we already have as it was workable.
As to back dating penalties, we had a whole farm inspection in 2018 2 women here for 2 weeks going through things with a fine tooth comb. They couldn’t find anything wrong and we ended up with more land than we started with. If we had another one I would argue that any penalties could only be backdated till then as every thing was deemed acceptable and correct then. Therefore I felt it was safe to continue rolling over.

Get ready for an argument then!

I asked this question last year, and the response was such that I am out of CS in September, as I declined the kind offer to rollover an HLS agreement, because of the risk of backdated penalties.

I would love to know the % of refusals actually, the person I spoke to was rather evasive, but "understood my position" when I pointed out the issue.