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Author Topic: Feeling hacked off and bitter  (Read 8908 times)

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Feeling hacked off and bitter
« on: April 19, 2016, 10:50:50 am »
I could greet. Not eligible for the Small Farm Grant Scheme to improve the smallholding because we jointly earn too much. Even though I'm a sole director of The Accidental Smallholder and have very little income. If we were crofters - even if we were two ex-barristers from London - we'd qualify for the parallel crofting scheme, where there is no income bar. OneScotland, my arse. Feeling bitter.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2016, 12:33:40 pm »
  :( >:(

That sucks. 

OTOH, you could be in England, and the Civil Servants would take all the SFP money, leaving very little for actual farmers.

It still sucks, though.   :hug:
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2016, 03:06:26 pm »

We're not eligible either Rosemary, as they subtract woody areas etc from total, so our hectarage is 0.1 under the min.  Same for any grants etc.  They've spent hundreds calculating that, to save themselves a few quid.
Easy to get downhearted - we just look on it as less hassle, fewer forms to fill in and fewer regs to negotiate and comply with.   Bummer though.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

pharnorth

  • Joined Nov 2013
  • Cambridgeshire
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2016, 03:20:12 pm »
After 4 years of form filling ' you MUST fill in this form', with increasingly detailed and irrelevant questions we finally got a 'your too small' response because they went to great pains to overestimate every bit of hard standing to ensure we were 0.1 below the minimum. I wonde FW how many of us are 0.1 under!!

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2016, 05:31:32 pm »
Write to your MPs.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2016, 06:06:01 pm »
After 4 years of form filling ' you MUST fill in this form', with increasingly detailed and irrelevant questions we finally got a 'your too small' response because they went to great pains to overestimate every bit of hard standing to ensure we were 0.1 below the minimum. I wonde FW how many of us are 0.1 under!!


Very interesting  :thinking:  I wonder indeed.  And considering how much is doled out to the big boys, well, what a waste of time.

When is a smallholding not a smallholding - when it's not very small, clearly  ::)
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2016, 06:57:56 pm »
We're getting  BPS on some of our land but the paddock we keep the pigs in is excluded from the eligible area because it's 10sq m too small - however, I think there's a fence we can take down to claw back that area  ::)

mab

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • carmarthenshire
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2016, 07:22:54 pm »
After 4 years of form filling ' you MUST fill in this form', with increasingly detailed and irrelevant questions we finally got a 'your too small' response because they went to great pains to overestimate every bit of hard standing to ensure we were 0.1 below the minimum. I wonde FW how many of us are 0.1 under!!


I've just received a letter telling me I'm 0.08 under (actually, the letter doesn't give a figure, but when I asked that's what they've recorded). I'm wondering if I should appeal or not bother.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2016, 08:54:09 pm »

I seriously doubt an area of farmland can be measured accurately to that decimal place.  Try appealing and let us know what they come up with.  :farmer:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Rupert the bear

  • Joined Jun 2015
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #9 on: April 19, 2016, 09:26:35 pm »
(not) Sorry to say We claim nothing, We do as we please, no I don't need a " wildlife corridor" on my borders like my neighbors  , to their cost  . I'll pay for the planting of the woodlands out of my own pocket, some one close by got a FC grant and was plagued by the boy that came each year to count the trees,check the correct herbicide and beating up was done , no money until deer eaten trees replaced,that took care of the money :D :D
Set aside, dont get me started...... binned.

So , No forms , no measuring the land,counting the buttercups , etc etc. Happy days

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2016, 08:21:30 am »

I seriously doubt an area of farmland can be measured accurately to that decimal place.  Try appealing and let us know what they come up with.  :farmer:

Yes, they can using GIS. The chappie camw with his little machine.

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2016, 08:23:36 am »
(not) Sorry to say We claim nothing, We do as we please, no I don't need a " wildlife corridor" on my borders like my neighbors  , to their cost  . I'll pay for the planting of the woodlands out of my own pocket, some one close by got a FC grant and was plagued by the boy that came each year to count the trees,check the correct herbicide and beating up was done , no money until deer eaten trees replaced,that took care of the money :D :D
Set aside, dont get me started...... binned.

So , No forms , no measuring the land,counting the buttercups , etc etc. Happy days

Fine if you can afford to fund improvements from your own capital but these grants are there for a reason. Nice to be in your position but not all of us are.

Q

  • Joined Apr 2013
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2016, 08:39:09 am »

Fine if you can afford to fund improvements from your own capital but these grants are there for a reason. Nice to be in your position but not all of us are.
But you said you earn too much money to qualify?  There have to be limits - You could always redirect some of your own money   :idea:
I my business If I dont have the money then I dont expand or and I cant replace equipment there's nobody there to throw cash at me.
If you cant beat 'em then at least bugger 'em about a bit.

YorkshireLass

  • Joined Mar 2010
  • Just when I thought I'd settled down...!
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2016, 09:30:06 am »
You're assuming that "too much money to qualify" means you earn an actual living wage  :innocent:

oor wullie

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Strathnairn
Re: Feeling hacked off and bitter
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2016, 11:29:31 am »

Fine if you can afford to fund improvements from your own capital but these grants are there for a reason. Nice to be in your position but not all of us are.
But you said you earn too much money to qualify?  There have to be limits - You could always redirect some of your own money   :idea:
I my business If I dont have the money then I dont expand or and I cant replace equipment there's nobody there to throw cash at me.

If I remember right the income limit is pretty low so just because you exceed it it doesn't mean you can afford the improvements.

Whether you agree with the very existence of grants or not the ops (valid) complaint is that they are not distributed fairly.  Eg Why is there not an income limit on large landowners who claim hundreds if thousands when there is on small farmers?

 

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