Western Daily Press (Saturday)
It’s time to shake that mysterious money tree
Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger tells Environment Secretary Steve Barclay the Government still isn’t appreciating what hill farming delivers to the country
DEAR Steve, I’ve only been an MP for 23 years so it is entirely conceivable that I may have walked past it on many occasions without noticing it but could you direct me to the location of the magic money tree that evidently stands within the precincts of the Palace of Westminster?
There must be one because a certain individual down here is talking as though all one needs to do is to hold a basket underneath it, shake its branches and harvest a bundle of loot to hand out to farmers.
Particularly farmers on Exmoor who, you will not be surprised to learn, are finding the current climate tougher going than most for all the usual reasons – though in this instance particularly the exceptional rainfall.
Oh that it were that simple to deliver a better deal for those responsible for 90 per cent of the work of keeping Exmoor looking as attractive as it does for the benefit of the tourists – and of course those who cater for them.
But I have lost count of the times I and other MPs with uplands in their constituencies have stressed the importance of not merely continuing but enhancing the special support hill farmers have enjoyed for the best part of a century. Partly to reward them for high degrees of landscape management, partly for toiling on poor, thin soils and in conditions several overcoats colder than on lowland farms to supply us with the finest quality meat.
And I still don’t think the message has sunk in with your department either as to precisely what a knife edge these farms are operating on – or what happens if there are widespread business failures.
The national park authorities certainly haven’t got the funds, the manpower or the expertise to take over so we could rapidly be contemplating desecration on a scale not seen since the 1930s when the hill farming economy was devastated by various adverse factors.
I am fully aware that the current agricultural regime is skewed (wrongly and dangerously in my view, but there it is) in favour of delivering ‘environmental goods’. But nowhere are such benefits already being delivered so generously as in the uplands, which rather places a ceiling on how many more environmental schemes the farmers there might qualify for. On which basis we need urgently to recognise hill farmers as an extra special case and tailor our support accordingly. Or simply shake the money tree.
Can I also bring to your attention the latest shocking statistics from NFU Mutual referring to the injuring or death of livestock worth £2.4 million in dog attacks last year? That is an appalling 30 per cent increase on 2022.
There are, of course, cumulative factors in play here. The CROW legislation sent a loud and clear message that the countryside was available for free roaming while the pandemic and the staycations that it engendered made many more families realise that there were open spaces on their very doorstep where they could let their dogs run freely, urinate and defecate.
The result has been an upsurge in attacks on sheep and other livestock far beyond anything that could have been anticipated. I know legislation is on the table which gives police powers to seize dogs suspected of attacking livestock and detaining them if they pose a continued threat.
But that assumes there are enough police available to carry out investigations. And there aren’t.
It also suggests to me we are woefully behind the game and that even these measures don’t go far enough, particularly when I read in the NFU Mutual survey that more than half those exercising their dogs in farmland don’t believe they need to prevent them going after livestock.
That is an appalling attitude. As I have said elsewhere, what would the reaction be if a bunch of farmers suddenly turned up in an urban street, unleashed their dogs and allowed them to tear to shreds every cat, rabbit, guinea pig and hamster within reach? Yet that is precisely the equivalent of the scenes farmers (particularly now the fields are full of pregnant ewes and newborn lambs) risk witnessing once the Easter invasion of dog owners gets under way.
No wonder that there is, sadly, increasing resentment in the farming community towards all dog owners – even the completely responsible ones.
I should like to see the legislation revised and strengthened still further in order to get us, for once, ahead of the game.
That means (assuming it can be caught immediately) destruction of any dog involved in a livestock attack; upping the maximum fine on an owner to £5,000; and welcoming repeat offenders warmly through the door of their nearest HMP for a month’s stay at the state’s expense.
Might just make some people stop and think.
Yours ever, Ian