South West will bounce back with a little help

Aid for the hospitality industry outlined in the Budget is going to assist rural tourism survive one of its bleakest trading periods, Bridgwater and West Somerset Conservative MP Ian LiddellGrainger tells Defra Secretary George Eustice

DEAR George, Most of my constituents’ eyes, I am sure, are focused currently on the light at the end of the tunnel. But none more so than those actively involved in tourism, who suffered from a truncated season last year and have so far been denied the chance of benefiting from the off-season trade which has been a real growth area in recent years.

So I have to extend my sincerest thanks on their behalf for the fact that the Chancellor has recognised the particular difficulties the hospitality sector has been experiencing and included a number of helpful measures in the Budget.

I don’t think anyone really appreciates quite how important tourism is to the economy when everything is running as normal.

It’s only when the tourists have to stay away that it becomes clear how the trade they generate flows so widely across so many economic sectors.

I could name you without thinking a dozen businesses which have taken a beating from the lack of tourists even though they themselves would not count themselves as being directly involved in the industry.

It’s also been a really difficult time for the farm tourism sector which has been steadily growing in recent years and providing very useful second income stream for so many families – and a very useful one given that some commodity prices are refusing to move very far above where they were 20 years ago.

If there is a silver lining to the Covid cloud, however, it’s that, denied the usual ability to fly off to overseas destinations, a lot more tourists have been holidaying in the South West, many for the first time, and have been absolutely seduced by its charms. Admittedly the region can’t offer the same weather as the Mediterranean fringes but conversely one is never prevented from enjoying an entire day outdoors by stifling, punishing midday heat.

As for food and drink I think we have already established the fact that

the South West is one of the best larders in Europe, which is reflected in the menus of hundreds of pubs, hotels and restaurants.

I think we really can look forward to permanent growth in regional tourism as a result of our temporary imprisonment within our shores and that is clearly going to be of enormous

help to many farming families coping with the transition from EU to UK support systems.

So the South West, George, is ready to bounce back – and with the Chancellor’s help should be doing so within a couple of months.

Yours ever,

Ian

WE are very lucky in this area of Wiltshire to have so many hedges. If you travel from our village to Malmesbury, both sides of the road are blessed with hedges, only interrupted by the occasional house. This is traditionally an area of small dairy farms, growing grass on heavy clay soil in small fields bounded by hedges for grazing livestock.

Before desk-bound dictates on hedge cutting were introduced, there would be a wide variety of hedges across the farm, providing food, nesting sites and cover for a variety of birds.

The hedges around the garden and farm buildings would be trimmed several times a year providing a tight cover for smaller songbirds to nest, protected from marauding magpies who would be seen quietly going down the hedge line of more open hedges, one each side, systematically wrecking nests, taking eggs and baby birds. Hedges farther away would be cut once a year, providing a taller hedge with cover for larger bird life.

The hedges at the far end of the farm, furthest from the buildings, would often become overgrown with hawthorn bushes becoming hawthorn trees, providing nesting and roosting sites for the larger bird population, such as wood pigeons and the dreaded magpie. When hedges got too big for hand trimming, they would be left to grow up for a few years and then be cut and laid.

Nowadays, politicians are obsessed by tree planting, but hedges could be seen as even more valuable, providing a wildlife corridor for our birds, mammals and insects, giving shelter from predators and a food supply of berries, fruits and nuts. Hedges may support up to 80% of our woodland birds, 50% of our mammals, including hedgehogs, voles and shrews, and 30% of our butterflies and moths, together with many other insects. Their ditches and banks give homes to amphibians like toads, frogs and newts.

They also provide a safe and vitally important way for wildlife to move through the landscape, extending viable habitats, and avoiding the creation of isolated pockets. Open areas are dangerous for small creatures; as they cross they are easily spotted by the predators that lie in wait on the ground or in the sky; it’s much safer for vulnerable wildlife to be able to creep along hedge lines.

For farmers, as well as acting as a fence, hedges also provide muchneeded shelter for grazing livestock, from heat and the extremes of winter weather. They can also reduce soil erosion and prevent pesticides and fertiliser leaching into waterways.

Recently I’ve heard grumbles like “farmers cut the hedges too much.” On our farm we are on a mid-tier Countryside Stewardship agreement, and as part of that have to agree to cut the hedges not more than once every two or three years. There is a disadvantage to not cutting hedges annually. After a few years, the hedges become loose in the bottom and there is less protection for nesting birds. When the hedges are cut infrequently, the thorns are larger and more dangerous, if an animal should encounter them. Hedges macerated in this way take longer to recover and food supply for wildlife is depleted. It’s likely that the Stewardship agreement will be changed in the future to annual cutting of the top two inches, to help hedges thicken up.

Hedges also provide an easy way of creating trees. If likely contenders, like saplings, are identified and then marked so that they are rescued from the annual hedge cutting, they soon grow into viable trees. It’s important to select the right species though; elms grow to about 12 feet and then succumb to attack from the Dutch elm beetle, and recently ash have come under attack from Ash Dieback. With the advent of modern hedge cutting, the temptation is to have a clean sweep without any trees in the way, so a sympathetic contractor who takes pride in the countryside is needed to carry out this policy.

When I first came into farming, the Government gave grants to remove hedges and make fields bigger – what a shortsighted policy! On the south-eastern side of the country, in counties like East Anglia, this led to huge fields, totally bereft of hedges. Although we campaigned for several years, there were no grants for hedge laying, although

these did come along later. Now farmland hedges are protected by law, until that is, a field is sold for housing. There is nothing in planning policy to protect the boundary hedges when a developer buys a plot – what a shortsighted lack of policy.

County councils could easily incorporate protection of existing boundary hedges as a planning condition. This would prevent a 600-year-old hedge full of wildlife habitat being routed up by a bulldozer and replaced by an inert fence, and its watery ditch and grass environs with an inert concrete surround for a driveway. This destruction is normally the first act of the developer who sees a larger plot as being more valuable.

This causes a complete annihilation of habitat and such habitat loss

is the major cause of species decline. I believe hedges and wildlife habitat in this era of climate change have an intrinsically greater value. The ability of hedges to absorb carbon is substantial. A 100-metre length of mature hedgerow can sequester around 120 kg of CO2 a year. Roadside hedges also trap toxins at exhaust pipe level, reducing people’s exposure to harmful pollutants, which make even more sense to preserve rather than destroy garden hedges.

Sadly, when our roadside hedges were cut back this year and the ditches trimmed, a considerable amount of litter was exposed. It’s hard work for someone, probably me, to pick up the litter and not a pleasant job either. Our wonderful hedges demand more respect. It

would be so easy for everyone to take their litter home, rather than leaving it behind in the countryside, chucked out of car windows. As well as being unsightly, litter is dangerous for wildlife. Birds will peck at plastic which could be fatal if swallowed and broken bottles can lead to injury, and plastic bottles trap wildlife.

On the other hand, tidy visitors are welcome.

It’s not too late to Keep Britain Tidy!

Porthmeor beach in St Ives. A lot more tourists have been holidaying in the South West, many for the first time, says Ian

> Ro Collingbourn’s farm has a Countryside Stewardship agreement and, as part of that, they have to agree to cut the hedges not more than once every two or three years