Walking along Conservation Field margins

Wed 13 May 2020, 22:00 (last edited on Thu 14 May 2020, 09:03)

I’m now about to incur the Wrath of the Fairhurst and be sentenced to the Debate section – no, Richard, please, no, not again, no, aarrgghh!!

 Paul, I know nothing about you but I'm guessing you have a professional interest – if dare I say rather more from the landowners’ perspective than that of the rest of us, making use of the conservation argument to keep us hoi-polloi off their land.

 I made a similar point in an earlier thread, but this goes wider.  Your pov might gain wider support if our local landowners and farmers were more up front about their land management practices.  Of course this is ‘none of our business’, landowners should be free to do whatever they choose with their land, we should just doff our caps and know our place. Well sorry, this is 2020, not 1820.  We all have a legitimate interest in the state of the environment around us - who pays for those 'stewardship grants'??

As a quick example, I learned to fly fish on the Windrush half a century ago, when it mostly ran clear and there were massive fly hatches.  Not any more (and much the same could probably be said for the Evenlode).  Agricultural run-offs have had much to do with the decline of our rivers – not alone, for sure (see e.g. windrushwasp.org) - but there can be little doubt intensive farming practices have played a large part in the general decline of our bio-diversity.  And guess what? - uncultivated strips along riverbanks don’t stop water flowing into them from the surrounding land.

About the one good thing – potentially – I could see coming from Brexit was abandoning the ridiculous CAP subsidy system and replacing it with payments for land being used for ‘public goods’. Even Gove seemed to buy into that when at the DoE – but what chance now?

Sorry but I’d like to ask you two specific questions: What is your authority for saying that “evidence of their (the strips’) use as footpaths or cycle routes will negate government stewardship grants and force (my italics) the landowners to plough up and remove these headlands”?  It may be true but needs chapter and verse, otherwise it’s just more Borisbluster.

So too “allow the landowners who maintain it to keep it as wildlife haven”.  Frankly I’ve seen little evidence that any of them do anything beyond just not ploughing it.  But if they are maintaining etc – let’s hear about it and maybe we could help.

Agree with you about dogs though!