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Back to Menu Peter Cook to Review SRDP Galloway News Feb 2009
A review of a situation is often justified when it’s not working. But to review a program that is to last 7 years when it has barely a year old is just downright daft. Richard Lochhead has given in to the professional whingers that have been “doing a job” on the Scottish Rural Development Program (SRDP) since it was first launched last April. An urgent review of the program is to be undertaken over the next three months. When it was first launched in April 2008 the main criticism was that it could only be accessed on-line. This was a valid grievance and one that should heap shame on our government for not having broadband technology available in every But ‘n’ Ben in the land. This being the main problem you might have thought that a telecommunications expert would have been parachuted in to sort the job. But no, instead they have appointed an economist to lead the review. At least he will be able to explain clearly to those who are bereft of broadband that the engineers can’t get the whatdeyecallthems up the thingabyjigs because their hoose is too far away from the whatsitsname and besides, it’s just too expensive. The next biggest criticism of the program was that it is a charter for consultants to make money. It is claimed that the schemes on offer are far too complex for ordinary farmers to apply for without employing the services of a trained consultant. The fact is that most farmers have already slipped into a culture of farming out this type of work to consultants. Indeed far simpler tasks are regularly outsourced. Each year in May consultants gather in armfuls of IACS forms and fill them in for farmers. The consultants will however notice a slight difference this year when farmers arrive with their forms. Many of their clients that drop in this spring will also be brandishing a copy of their failed application to the Rural Stewardship Scheme (RSS). This will have been lovingly prepared by the same consultant some years ago and would have been rejected as not being good enough to be accepted for the now defunct (RSS). Recycling is not a concept that comes easily to farmers but in this case they will certainly try to convince the poor consultant that, these decaying carcasses can be re-heated, at minimal cost, and posted off again to make an application to the Rural Priorities scheme. There’s nothing quite like pinning your hopes on something that has a proven record of failure! Being over bureaucratic is the next accusation that is levelled at the SRDP. Heaven forbid that the government should want to exercise some control over how we spend the 1.6 Billion pounds. No, best just to let a few bigwigs oversee the job from a distance with very little, in the way of, control downstream. This is a formula which, until very recently, has worked well for many of our Scottish banks! In conclusion I don’t really think that there is anything wrong with the SRDP that a wee man in a BT van couldn’t sort given unlimited resources. Peter Cook is charged with the responsibility of looking at the SRDP and to give it a brush. He is to make sure that it is still appropriate, considering that the world is now a different place to what it was when the program was originally drawn up. Under the program rules a full scale review of the program is already scheduled for 2010. When, at this time, they will now have to review this new review as well as the statutory review. What an absolute guddle! |