The Farmers’ Union of Wales today reminded farmers who have been unsuccessful in their initial appeals to remove land from the Welsh Government’s moorland area that they have until November 28 to submit stage 2 appeals.
“Eighty-two per cent of stage 1 appeals have been rejected by the Welsh Government panel which considered these. This has caused huge frustration, particularly where the evidence and aerial photographs seem to show conclusively that the land is not moorland,” said FUW policy director Nick Fenwick.
“However, a second stage appeal can be submitted, which requires a survey and report to be produced by a Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) registered surveyor and submitted by November 28.
“Those who have not received a response to stage 1 appeals should contact the Welsh Government as soon as possible, as all those who submitted appeals should have been written to some time ago.”
Mr Fenwick said the Welsh Government had agreed to reimburse up to £1,500 (inclusive of VAT) where stage 2 appeals were successful.
“Just a few months ago there was to be no appeals process where land had been incorrectly categorised in 1992,” he said. “The FUW worked hard to secure a two stage appeals process, similar to the one introduced in England in 2004, and we remain grateful to the deputy minister for having listened to our concerns.
“This is likely to the be the last chance farmers get to remove incorrectly mapped land from the moorland payment region, and we would encourage all those who have been turned down at stage 1 to carefully consider a stage 2 appeal if they have not already done so.
“With just weeks to go before the deadline, farmers need to come to a decision as soon as possible, as the surveying work can take some time and the onset of winter will make surveying more difficult.”
Mr Fenwick said that many CIEEM registered surveyors were prepared to undertake initial surveys at competitive costs in order to assess whether it was worth undertaking a full survey.
“The price of doing both initial surveys and the full survey is also likely to fall where farmers in a region group together,” Mr Fenwick added.
Lists of CIEEM approved persons likely to be able survey field parcels or parts of parcels which should be removed can be found by visiting http://www.cieem.net/members-directory/search and entering “Phase 1 survey (habitat and species)” and the relevant area postcode into the search boxes.
“Those considering appealing could also contact their local FUW office to enquire about the surveys and qualified surveyors,” said Mr Fenwick.