Farm fines damage Wales

Apr 8 2008 by Gareth Vaughan, Western Mail

RESPONSIBILITY for virtually all Welsh farming issues has been devolved to the National Assembly but I still felt compelled to write to the Prime Minister recently to express the union’s “extreme concerns” about the impact this side of Offa’s Dyke of cuts amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds to Defra’s budget.

The FUW had already made strong representations, but it is obvious that responsibility for implementing these cuts ultimately lies with Gordon Brown.

I stressed that although the industry’s concerns are related to the administration undertaken by Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government, local authorities and other bodies, the overall budgetary restrictions are placed on those bodies by the Treasury.

The proposed cuts are closely related to Defra’s expected fine from the EU for failing to properly implement the English Single Payment Scheme.

But it seems FUW members with land in England, having already suffered due to the severe failures of Defra and the Rural Payments Agency since 2004, will now suffer further, as they will effectively be handed a proportion of the fine for the failures that have already affected them.

Our members in Wales will also effectively pay a proportion of the fine imposed.

We also fear further economic pressures caused by the proposed sharing by the farming industry of animal health and welfare costs plus other budgetary cuts.

Disease control measures will be adversely affected as Local Authority Trading Standards budgets are cut and small and medium size slaughterhouses will suffer severely as the costs of increased bureaucracy are transferred from the Meat Hygiene Services to the industry.

Clearly the UK farming industry has a major role to play in meeting global food demands and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, we require the proactive support of Government rather than hikes in costs. I would say all relevant budgetary cuts should be halted and reversed, and the affordability of the cost- sharing agenda the overriding feature of future plans.

Gareth Vaughan, president of the Farmers’ Union of Wales