Fresh fears over Glastir scheme

Farmers Union of Wales common land committee members say they are ‘extremely concerned’ about the implications for upland communities and have repeated the union’s call for a 12-month start-up delay.

Committee chairman, Rhymney farmer Lorraine Howells, has written to Assembly opposition environment and agriculture party spokesmen seeking their support and stressing the disruption Glastir could cause for farmers who rely on commons.

“While we would encourage every commoner and graziers’ association to look into the possibility of getting their common into Glastir, we have major concerns about the practicality of doing this for many commons.”

She said the majority of common land ─ about 8 per cent of Wales’s total land area ─ is categorised as ‘less favoured’ and 18 per cent of Welsh farmers declare common land on their Single Application Forms.

In some areas, communities were almost entirely reliant on their common grazing rights.

But she said the EU rules associated with agri-environmental schemes did not properly take into account the unique nature of common land management in the UK.

“We are concerned that while there may well be commons where the majority agree they want, or have little financial alternatives but to sign up to Glastir, the chances of this majority being large enough to meet the 80 per cent criteria set by WAG and the EC may be slim.

“There is also the concern that those who rely on common land for 365 days a year, because they have relatively little normal farmland, will be unable to enter Glastir without reducing stocking levels to the extent that their businesses become unviable.”

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