This week, the committee discussed a range of issues, many of which mirrored the problems we've raised with Defra and the RPA over a number of months. A focus has been BPS payments for commoners.
As our uplands spokesman, Robin Milton. said earlier in the month: “With the 2016 payment window fast approaching, Minchinhampton-based corrections delayed until next year and 2017 BPS forms months from being issued, it’s unacceptable that so many 2015 payments on common land are incorrect, unclear or outstanding."
NFU staff and Uplands Forum members met with the RPA and the Cumbrian and Yorkshire Commoners on Monday to press for a resolution to these issues and the Efra Committee chairman, Neil Parish, said on Tuesday: "We welcome you are meeting commoners, but it is a shame it didn’t happen sooner. It has taken a very long time to get there. The commoners and this committee most certainly will have no sympathy with any further delays for commoners next year."
- See also: Our BPS pages