Assembly dashes hopes of Glastir delay

29 December 2009 | Updated: 29 December 2009 9:26 am | By Barry Alston

DESPITE deep-seated industry opposition the Welsh Assembly is determined to press ahead with its new showpiece Glastir land management payments scheme from its scheduled 2012 start up.

Welsh farming union leaders met Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones, just before the holiday break - but a meeting scheduled for one hour lasted three.

The industry fears Glastir is not yet fit for purpose and the planned implementation date far too ambitious. Instead they are looking to secure a delay and an extension of the current Tir Mynydd hill support scheme.

Any hopes of that happening, however, seemed to be squashed by Assembly officials at the Aberystwyth meeting.

“The fact that we spent nearly three hours in discussions with the Minister and her senior staff highlights that we all share a common interest - to make Glastir work in the best interests of Welsh farmers and rural Wales,” said Farmers Union of Wales president, Gareth Vaughan.

“The meeting gave us the opportunity to raise our concerns face-to-face with the Minister. We trust that these have now hit home and that we will see some changes that will be of benefit to the industry.

“But we made it clear that we still believe the Glastir implementation date should be delayed by 12 months, and Tir Mynydd extended for that period.

“Such a delay would give us far more time to iron out the significant issues that have arisen.”

NFU Cymru leaders said they had heard ‘nothing that changed our minds’ about the scheme.

“The concerns we had when we went into the meeting were the same as when we left,” said Wales director, Mary James.

What the Minister has agreed to, however, is the setting up of task force groups involving stakeholders in an attempt to hammer out specific scheme issues.

CLA Wales leaders believe that because of the raft of anomalies Glastir will fall well short of the 14,000 applicants the Assembly is predicting for the scheme’s first year.

FWAG Cymru’s director, Glenda Thomas, maintains feedback from farmers used as guinea pigs has not been encouraging and also believes the scheme needs to go back to the drawing board, otherwise uptake would be minimal.

Some hill farmers reckon they stand to lose around 20 per cent of existing support payment levels - even if they succeeded in gaining sufficient entry points.