Agri-environment battle continues

10 March 2000



Agri-environment battle continues

By Shelley Wright

MORE than 100 Scottish farmers in a financial wrangle over an agri-environment scheme have been told to seek compensation to cover their losses.

The dispute was caused by the Scottish Executives misinterpretation of the rules which govern the European Union scheme.

Farmers affected are mainly those who received payments for removing some sheep as part of their agreements under the old Heather Moorland Scheme.

The agreements were then transferred to the Countryside Premium Scheme.

Farmers were first advised that quota for sheep taken from the land could not be sold or leased but could be used to claim for ewe hoggs already on the farms.

But, last summer, the Scottish executive discovered that this was illegal and that the £450,000 EU contribution to the schemes would have to be repaid.

Scottish farm minister Ross Finnie is trying to persuade Brussels that repayment should not be clawed back from producers.

If he fails, however, farmers will have to pick up the bill.

Mr Finnie told the Scottish NFU annual meeting in Aviemore last Friday that those who could show their losses would be entitled to compensation.

But for producers like George Mitchell, who has a tenancy on the 500-acre Ashentrool farm, near Dunblane, any eventual compensation may come too late.

Mr Mitchell, who runs 354 breeding ewes, says he is only two weeks away from insolvency. His payments have been withheld because of the Brussels ruling.

In Mr Mitchells case, that amounts to £6,755, wrecking his budget forecast and forcing him to extend an existing overdraft until the end of March.