Rural Priorities Part 1

Going by the gleeful responses that I have had, from some quarters, after last month’s column, shadenfroida has struck a cord with many readers.   For those that didn’t read it, shadenfroida is not my Lithuanian housekeeper.  No, it’s that feeling of comfort that you derive from someone else’s misfortune.  Well, things are still going pear shaped here on the farm - but more of that later.

Has anyone seen Richard Lochhead, the minister for Rural Affairs and Environment, recently?  He has not been far from my thoughts for these last three weeks.  The reason for my concern is that he holds my future in the palm of his hand and while I hear of him attending meetings here there and everywhere he seems completely oblivious to my increasing anxiety.  Everyday I wait, eagerly, on the post lady to deliver my mail just in the off-chance that he might get round to telling me whether my application to the Rural Development Contracts – Rural Priorities (RDC-RP) funding scheme has been successful or not.

The Regional Project Assessment Committee (RPAC), I am told, met on the 31^st October to consider all of the worked-up projects that have been submitted since the last time that they met.  Working on the theory that bad news always travels very quickly I’m beginning to think that, just maybe, my plan has been approved.  However, these things cannot be taken for granted. 

The reason that I am now getting a bit frustrated is because the scheme, which I have put forward for consideration by the RPAC and consequently Mr. Lochhead, will mean quite radical changes for my business.  Having suffered the indignity of my first two statements of intent being awarded red lights by my case officer - quite justifiably, I may add – my proposal missed the first meeting of the RPAC earlier this year.  Consequently I was left, during the autumn round of sales, to decide if I should reduce my livestock levels in anticipation of being accepted by the October meeting of the RPAC or not.

The upshot of my experience, so far, has been to highlight how lengthy the process can be from submitting your first statement of intent to actually getting your worked-up plans approved by the Minister for Rural Affairs.  Unfortunately this situation looks set to get worse!  The length of time it is taking case officers to assess Statements of Intent is getting longer due to their increasing workload and as the scheme gains momentum this will not improve.  I believe it can now take up to five weeks for a statement to be assessed.  This is quite unacceptable and Richard Lochhead will have to move quickly to sharpen up the entire process before it is overwhelmed by a workload that it simply cannot cope with in its present state.

My proposal lodged with the RPAC, if approved, will mean that I will no longer be burning tanker loads of diesel or spreading lorry loads of chemical fertiliser; native breeds of cattle will graze the hill and sheep will be stocked at levels that the farm can comfortably support and consequently wildlife will flourish.  Prince Charles himself, would surely give me a nod of approval but I fear he may well be into his seventies before I finally get the thumbs up or the thumbs down from the Minister for Rural Affairs.  Or at least it seems like that to me while I wait each day for the mail to arrive. 

Talking about the mail brings me to my latest foul up to add to last month’s list of disasters.  Our store room where I keep my office supplies also houses our deepfreeze.   My rummaging about two weeks ago, looking for envelopes, left the deepfreeze turned off and the air blue.  While the food in the freezer thawed out fairly quickly my wife has yet to warm-up.

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