Tir Gofal Success
28/11/05

CLA Wales has succeeded in persuading the Welsh Assembly Government to reverse its decision to cut Tir Gofal management payment rates. Welsh chairman Ross Murray said at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair he was delighted that Countryside Minister, Carwyn Jones, had been able to make use of the help given by the CLA policy team.

There had been concern that the management payments would have to be cut to avoid double funding in the light of the change to the Single Farm Payment. Tir Gofal couldn't be seen to be compensating for loss of subsidy, since the old system was no longer in place.

Policy advisor Sue Evans said CLA lobbying had helped to produce a better deal. The Minister was about to write to AMs asking their approval for a payment strategy which had been put together with the CLA assistance

"This decision is vital to continued confidence in the scheme and indeed to all future agri environment initiatives", she said. "It is inconceivable that, while the cost of everything else has increased over the last five years, payments for providing environmental benefit should decrease.

"A review was necessary to take into account the move from subsidies to SFP. This has now been done and has resulted in a marginally higher budget with payments having being altered to remove any element of compensation for subsidy while taking into account higher costs. The result of this will be that some element of management payments will be marginally higher while others will be lower".

Sue Evans added that the Minister had agreed that those who find that their payment has fallen due to the review will be allowed to leave the scheme without any penalty. They will also be able to enter Tir Cynnal without having to wait for two years as would otherwise be the case.

The review of payments will be necessary for all agri environment schemes and it's expected that the revised Tir Gofal rates will be similarly applied to ESA.

"This is a move in the right direction though payments are still lower than those being made under the new Stewardship scheme over the border", said Sue Evans. "However, we are now looking forward to being notified of a meeting to discuss the next review of the Tir Gofal scheme which will be triggered by the RDP review of 2007.

"After the difficulties faced in trying to review the Tir Gofal payments this time we will lobby for a more flexibly designed scheme which is built to last out any further change in agricultural policy. We hope the WAG will begin negotiations with us at an early enough stage so that the changes can be implemented on time".

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