Welsh Commons Forum: Powell highlights key issues

Here are some of the highlights of Mr Powell’s speech to the Welsh Commons Forum’s annual conference, 2010.

• The reduction in sheep numbers was one of the major factors leading to the increase in bracken encroachment which was destroying the hills faster than anything else. “Unless this is taken on board by Government departments our hills will continue to be of reduced value for graziers, poorer value for conservation and of far less interest for tourism.”
• “It saddens me that environmentalists who become involved with administering schemes have little or no idea or regard for how the management of livestock on common land works and the importance of the grazing animal.”
• “Just as people need to be educated before they walk on the roads, they should be educated before they are allowed access to the countryside - having passed a test to show they are competent and understand the problems they can create.”
• “Many of the policymakers working for Defra and the RPA would be unemployable in the private sector - not even acceptable as fit to stock Tesco’s supermarket shelves. Even the computer systems have never been up to the job and are still incapable of carrying out the tasks they are supposed to.”

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