Devon farmer takes RPA fight to Brussels

A Devon farmer is taking his fight to overturn an £11,000 single farm payment fine to Brussels.

Richard Haddock, who farms near Brixham and owns Churston Farm Shop, had his farm payments cut over two years and was fined £11,000 following a complaint about a blocked footpath.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent an official to his farm in Churston Ferrers in 2012 following an allegation that he had ploughed up a public footpath across his land.

Although Mr Haddock said the inspector told him he was satisfied that the footpath was undisturbed, he decided to carry out a full inspection to check the farm was complying with all rules and that his payment application was correct.

But that was “when the trouble started”, said Mr Haddock, who was fined for what he claimed were a number of “minor infringements”.

“He (the inspector) pointed to a section of wall which had collapsed on to part of one of my fields,” he added.

“I explained it wasn’t my wall, it was listed, it wasn’t my fault that it had fallen down and all my attempts to contact the owner to get the rubble removed and the structure rebuilt had failed.”

The RPA inspector also highlighted problems with land covered by an overgrown hedge.

“I explained that the hedge was covered by my Natural England stewardship agreement, was trimmed on a three-year rotation and that side of it was due to be tidied within a few weeks once hedgecutting was permitted once more,” Mr Haddock said.

The inspector also decided to deduct Mr Haddock payments for fencing off part of a field to stop his cattle from grazing near badgers.

“I had put up a temporary barbed wire fence to keep my cows out of a 2.5ha area where there were badger setts and latrines,” said Mr Haddock.

“I explained that I had done it four years previously on the advice of Defra and for the past three years my cows had gone TB-free.”

He also explained to the inspector that if he had let his cows graze that area he would have breached the 2006 Animal Welfare Act, which states it is an offence to keep animals in a way in which they might come to harm.

Mr Haddock was also handed deductions for a 4m strip of land covered by a stream – which was in flood at the time – and for a patch of bare land in a pasture where work had just been carried out to repair a water main.

He has appealed to the RPA office to have the £11,000 fine thrown out on three occasions but has been unsuccessful on each attempt. Mr Haddock has recently had his case heard by a full, independent tribunal.

Defra will now decide whether or not to uphold the complaints.

In the meantime, Mr Haddock travelled to Brussels on 8 July to lobby MEPs about his own case and point out the “contradictions” in agri-environment scheme, wildlife and single farm payment rules.

“I await the outcome of the tribunal with interest but will have no hesitation in taking my case to the farm minister if it fails to find in my favour,” he said.

“I shall have one question to ask him: Do I do as Defra vets tell me, or do I abide by animal welfare laws, or do I listen to what Natural England instructs me to do, or do I run things precisely by the RPA’s rulebook?

“Because at the moment, it’s impossible to do all three.”

In response, an RPA spokeswoman said that the agency could not comment on individual cases.

But she commented: “Farmers receive Single Payment Scheme payments in return for complying with EU rules on farm management, animal welfare and keeping land in good agricultural and environmental condition.

“Our inspectors work hard to help farmers understand the EU rules but, if someone is claiming money to which they are not entitled, we will take action to protect taxpayers’ money.”