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Reprieve For Guides And Scouts Camps On Farmland Activities such as school trips and scouts and guides camps will still be allowed on agricultural land without financial penalty to the farmer after Defra decided not to add extra bureaucracy to the Single Payment System.
Prior to advice from the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), Defra had been on the verge of announcing that non-agricultural uses of agricultural land would be restricted to five days unless written permission was sought and given for longer periods.The CLA instantly demonstrated to Defra that this was an unnecessary and punitive bureaucratic step which would limit the role that farmers play in their communities by encouraging a huge range of individually small, but collectively important, activities to take place on land. CLA President Mark Hudson said, "We are grateful and relieved that Defra has decided not to introduce such a negative measure. Using farmland for school trips, scout camps and village fairs occurs mainly in the summer when the hay or silage has been taken or the crop harvested and so does not interfere with the main farming activity at all. Many farmers use pockets of their fields for a number of days each year for all sorts of other activities which enable them to diversify their revenues. Indeed it is government policy to encourage such activities. The CLA was able to list 46 of these minor limited uses of land." After a month of discussion, in which the Government also had to persuade the European Commission that these were perfectly normal multifunctional uses of land which do not in any way impede the principal farming activity on the land, it has been agreed that there will be three categories of non-agricultural use on agricultural land. These are: A: Unrestricted, permitted activities like walking, bird watching and school visits, and game shooting; B: Permitted activities restricted to 28 days per parcel of land per year, like car boot sales, summer fairs and events; and C: Non-permitted activities - mostly involving vehicles. This is a most satisfactory outcome, although landowners and farmers must be aware that the planning regulations governing these permitted uses on agricultural land have not changed. 30 March 2005 |
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