Who's in the 10% club?

[Hooch]

Just checked the bank and l seem to been paid in full now
Good luck to anyone still waiting I ran them last Monday and it seems to have worked

 

[fieldfarmer]

Just checked the bank and l seem to been paid in full now
Good luck to anyone still waiting I ran them last Monday and it seems to have worked

I might try that in the morning.

 

[fieldfarmer]

Some more has been paid in yesterday, will have to wait for a statement because its a bit light!

 

[Punch]

Had ours last week. Think it's right. Just waiting on claim statement to confirm.

 

[Hesston4860s]

Doesn't sound brilliant then. But I have never fully understood the date of 2008 given by RPA, SPS started in 2005 so I don't really understand the significance of 2008 being the trigger date. Since you have got this far it might be worth one last throw of the dice. If the fields were definitely registered with RPA and received payment and entitlements in 2005 then you could argue that the fact that they weren't claimed in 2008 was due to the death of your father. The way that I see it is that your agent should have known all of this, maybe you can persuade him that he owes you a favour for not having handled it correctly (I doubt you can claim your fees back off him, that would be another fight not worth pursuing). So maybe your agent would stump up the Appeal panel fee, £250 at most (he will get it back if you win). You put together the case that the land was registered in 2005 for SPS and has only missed to be registered in 2008 due to a) your fathers death, b) delay in issuing SBI, c) delay in getting FWPS contract signed over. You argue that if not for these factors it would have been claimed in 2008, so RPA ought to allow it to be registered under BPS. The appeal needs to be put together simply, clearly and coherently. The appeal panel is made up of farmers, land agents, and solicitors etc. All practical people who understand the issues of government departments and tend not to be afraid of ruling against DEFRA and RPA. You might stand a chance by putting a good case to them.

Its only a chance, but maybe worth trying? Especially if you can persuade your agent to do the decent thing and fund and prepare it.

Not even worth thinking about if that land was not definitely registered and held entitlements under SPS in 2005 or any other time.

Well I’m still on with the RPA about this !.

The fields where definitely registered with the RPA in 2005, I now have a copy of the 2005 SPS claim form. The form shows all of the land my late father had, and shows that 35.02ha worth of entitlements where generated for sps. However No set aside entitlements where generated as there was no requirement by my late father to have any set aside, this is due to the fact that the whole farm barring the woodland schemes was on countryside stewardship and coded as PP4 (permanent pasture in an environment scheme).
The woodland schemes are thus coded as FR3 as no set aside was required !, there was also a 2006 claim made by the Estate of my late father. The 2006 claim is identical to the 2005 one as obviously nothing had changed being in the schemes the land was in.
No further claims where made as by the 2007 claim window opened had opened we had no other land to claim on other than the woodland, reason we had no other land is due to the county council refusing myself a tenancy on the land containing the countryside stewardship scheme.
With the woodland at this time being ineligible for an SPS payment no claim was made on it.

I’m a little unsure as to where I stand with all this now, as I don’t know if the woodland had been claimed in 2008 would it of been eligible for bps by using the FR3 code ?. I thought at one point in time the 2015 BPS handbook did make reference to the FR3 code, but has since be updated and I now can’t find it !.

At least when I do finally make it to Appeal sometime in November onwards I’ll get a day out in York !.