Opinion: The RPA, an RLE1 and why retirement appealed
© Kathy Horniblow At Number 3 on our list of semi-retirement ambitions (after “live well off the gently tapering BPS” and “keep the RPA at a very long arm’s length”) was “plant some copses” on our hundred-acre patch.
The BPS bit crashed and burned thanks to Rachel from Accounts, and Mrs Flindt joined the SFI pilot scheme volunteers to raise a bit of suddenly-needed cash (and help formulate the SFI, of course).
There went the “arm’s length” bit.
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The tree planting has gone very well, though. A couple of hundred trees per patch, paced out in three-by-three squares, and surrounded with an assortment of shrubs.
We paid for the first tranche, and then the South Downs (aka the taxpayer) paid for the rest.
We did all the work, though, summoning children to help when they had a few days holiday and needed some screen-free fresh air.
As a result, these vulnerable young things (the trees, not our children) have been lavished with care and attention.
In the drought of ’23, we took turns to pump a litre of water from a UTV bowser/dispenser down the tree guards every other day. We lost none.
Thirty months on, they look a treat, growing lush and green at strategic points in the wild bird strips that line many of the fields.
We’re fighting a battle with the deer, of course, not helped by the Roe discovering that “eco” guards are easily destroyed, exposing the trees, which are then destroyed.
(Mind you, the “eco” guards will shatter if a flatulent mouse walks within 10ft of them.)
It doesn’t help that our landlord has just inexplicably shelved its “deer management plan”, despite having planted many thousand more trees than we have.
We then had an email from the RPA, thanking us for our involvement in the pilot scheme and pointing out that we qualified to make an SFI application as a result.
This came just after the BPS payment had gone from “gently tapering” to “steeply tapering” to “cliff face” – so was welcome news.
This meant, of course, that it was time to get out the dreaded RLE1 form, a farm map and lots of crayons, and tell the RPA about the trees.
We even spent a day with the ancient farm tape measure (feet and inches on one side, chains on the other) doing our best to get the area right.
Why ask for a sketch map if it’s just going straight in the bin?
A couple of scans and a bit of clicking and the job was done. What could go wrong?
As it happens, quite a lot.
Our beautiful sketch map was totally ignored by the RPA, and our online field records were changed so that all the wild bird strips (admittedly indistinguishable in the aerial photos) were classified as trees – not good when they are supposed to be earning SFI points.
Why ask for a sketch map if it’s just going straight in the bin?
Emails were sent. Phone calls were made. Emails were sort of answered, phone calls weren’t.
With the SFI deadline rapidly approaching, we’re getting a bit cross about this – even with Scary George at the Tenant Farmers Association promising that such matters can be sorted out retrospectively.
It has all brought back grim memories of fields vanishing from the system and payments not materialising in struggling bank accounts.
A not-so-gentle reminder of why we grabbed retirement when it came knocking.