Voluntary land flooding structures.

[livestock 1]

Got a meeting this week with EA and ANOB as they are wanting to construct some of these on my land. Anyone had any experience with these?

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Are you talking about raised water levels?
What type of scheme are you in?
Be very wary if they want to make your land wetter for long periods and make sure you get professional advice and good compensation.

Once land has been flooded for long periods only the worst grasses ever survive. Plus if you are grazing this land then the incidence of Fluke can increase. You devalue the land and if you ever get out of the scheme it may take a long time to put the land back in productive farming.

 

[livestock 1]

Fluke can’t get much worse than it is here.
These are basically dams to reduce flooding further down so it’s dams rather than wetting land. We have Hls/Els depending on where they want them. Nothing to do with this but I have been told it may make the difference between getting a new scheme or not

 

[Formatted]

Nothing to do with this but I have been told it may make the difference between getting a new scheme or not

EA and ANOB won't have an impact on future schemes. Talk to your Natural England advisor and as Frank says get professional advice

 

[livestock 1]

EA and ANOB won't have an impact on future schemes. Talk to your Natural England advisor and as Frank says get professional advice

Already have off my agent. Story is it will help or make the difference between them renewing the scheme or not. They call it cooperation

 

[spin cycle]

Already have off my agent. Story is it will help or make the difference between them renewing the scheme or not. They call it cooperation

i reckon thats bollox blackmail......there just not trustworthy IMO.....my agreement ends feb...i was offered extension of a year.....i now realise it was take us up to ELMS.....stewardship pretty much finished after that i think

i love stewardship but they are b'stards.......just my rather bitter opinion

 

[livestock 1]

i reckon thats bollox blackmail......there just not trustworthy IMO.....my agreement ends feb...i was offered extension of a year.....i now realise it was take us up to ELMS.....stewardship pretty much finished after that i think

i love stewardship but they are pansy s.......just my rather bitter opinion

I wouldn’t of thought my agent would be blackmailing me now would he. Make no mistake I don’t want to do this and have told them this. Many schemes not offered an extension or renewal round about. This simply ticks another box that someone else might not be able to. I don’t make these rules up

 

[spin cycle]

I wouldn’t of thought my agent would be blackmailing me now would he. Make no mistake I don’t want to do this and have told them this. Many schemes not offered an extension or renewal round about. This simply ticks another box that someone else might not be able to. I don’t make these rules up

you don't make the rules......they make/change the rules as they please.....you must do as you think

personally i'd be truthful.....' i want to help but don't trust you....further more i don't know what you can do to persuade me to trust you......sorry'

 

[livestock 1]

you don't make the rules......they make/change the rules as they please.....you must do as you think

personally i'd be truthful.....' i want to help but don't trust you....further more i don't know what you can do to persuade me to trust you......sorry'

They have tried to play the guilt trip on me by saying I need to do this to benefit others.
They haven’t offered me any money yet.
My worst fear is that I will be left to maintain the bloody things.
They will all get their cut too

 

[spin cycle]

They have tried to play the guilt trip on me by saying I need to do this to benefit others.
They haven’t offered me any money yet.
My worst fear is that I will be left to maintain the bloody things.
They will all get their cut too

tell em as they're doing away with subsidies you no longer feel obliged to 'benefit others'

 

[Hindsight]

I think Princess Pooper on here has a flood alleviation scheme through HLS. Water storage at River peak flow rates. Affords protection for Melton downstream.

 

[Muddyroads]

Surely if they want to put dams on your land it will lead to you getting wetter ground by definition?

 

[RushesToo]

@Princess Pooper Can you offer advice here?

 

[livestock 1]

Surely if they want to put dams on your land it will lead to you getting wetter ground by definition?

I don’t live in Holland!
Very steep land with many streams and rivers

 

[Princess Pooper]

Our situation is slightly different. We did have a flood alleviation scheme - a 5 m high dam with sluice gates, river flows through normally, but gates can be lowered to store water and prevent town downstream from flooding. As this was done under statutory powers, we didn't really have a lot of say in the matter, the land would have been compulsory purchased if we didn't sell it to them (we then rented it back but no longer have the tenancy, which i why I am using past tense). We got a good price for the land when sold to EA but had to pay a peppercorn rent (which increased more than we would like as time went on) and we got NO compensation for future flood events.

So we actually insisted that if we rented, we should be allowed to put it in agri-env schemes (it was flood plain permanent pasture) as that was the only way we could make it viable (we also claimed BPS on it). Glad we did because the vegetation from an agricultural perspective has deteriorated significantly over the last 20 years and is now mainly deschampsia (tussocks). Some years it is not flooded, but this winter it has been under water for days on end probably 9-10 occasions.

The biggest problem was having EA as a landlord, they used external land agents and tried to do a standard FBT with no allowance for the sort of deterioration in the grazing that I have mentioned and we had to get them to alter it a lot to make it suitable. The HLS option was maintenance of grassland for over wintered waders - it certainly gets those! (It was also rig and furrow so that got us some ELS points). So it was approx £112/acre that we wouldn't otherwise have had. We didn't really have to do much extra, but restrictions on topping those tussocks and supplementary feeding were a bit of a pain.

Due to the scale of the structure there was never any question of us maintaining it, and the dam, although not normally holding water, is covered by the Reservoirs Act so has to have an engineering inspection every year

 

[livestock 1]

Our situation is slightly different. We did have a flood alleviation scheme - a 5 m high dam with sluice gates, river flows through normally, but gates can be lowered to store water and prevent town downstream from flooding. As this was done under statutory powers, we didn't really have a lot of say in the matter, the land would have been compulsory purchased if we didn't sell it to them (we then rented it back but no longer have the tenancy, which i why I am using past tense). We got a good price for the land when sold to EA but had to pay a peppercorn rent (which increased more than we would like as time went on) and we got NO compensation for future flood events.

So we actually insisted that if we rented, we should be allowed to put it in agri-env schemes (it was flood plain permanent pasture) as that was the only way we could make it viable (we also claimed BPS on it). Glad we did because the vegetation from an agricultural perspective has deteriorated significantly over the last 20 years and is now mainly deschampsia (tussocks). Some years it is not flooded, but this winter it has been under water for days on end probably 9-10 occasions.

The biggest problem was having EA as a landlord, they used external land agents and tried to do a standard FBT with no allowance for the sort of deterioration in the grazing that I have mentioned and we had to get them to alter it a lot to make it suitable. The HLS option was maintenance of grassland for over wintered waders - it certainly gets those! (It was also rig and furrow so that got us some ELS points). So it was approx £112/acre that we wouldn't otherwise have had. We didn't really have to do much extra, but restrictions on topping those tussocks and supplementary feeding were a bit of a pain.

Due to the scale of the structure there was never any question of us maintaining it, and the dam, although not normally holding water, is covered by the Reservoirs Act so has to have an engineering inspection every year

I already have some land which I voluntarily flood to stop the village flooding. I have been bombarded with complaints about this for years until the recently when it’s been publicised as a flood elevation plan then now it seems like a good idea. Like many farming practices it’s only a good idea when some educated bod catches up an realises it works.
This is voluntary at the moment and I have already had one meeting and many phone calls/emails about this. I prefer the carrot compared to the stick. The carrot may come with some money. Although I haven’t been offered any as yet.
I recently heard that future subs will include such as this.

 

[Goweresque]

I already have some land which I voluntarily flood to stop the village flooding. I have been bombarded with complaints about this for years until the recently when it’s been publicised as a flood elevation plan then now it seems like a good idea. Like many farming practices it’s only a good idea when some educated bod catches up an realises it works.
This is voluntary at the moment and I have already had one meeting and many phone calls/emails about this. I prefer the carrot compared to the stick. The carrot may come with some money. Although I haven’t been offered any as yet.
I recently heard that future subs will include such as this.

Sounds like you should hang on a bit, this is exactly what the new 'Public Goods' subsidies are supposed to be going to pay for. You might find that if you agree to something now you'll have knackered your chances of getting some proper ££ in a few years time.

 

[livestock 1]

Sounds like you should hang on a bit, this is exactly what the new 'Public Goods' subsidies are supposed to be going to pay for. You might find that if you agree to something now you'll have knackered your chances of getting some proper ££ in a few years time.

Yes I agree. Depends if they they twist my arm too much I suppose