Tir Mynydd decision a step in the right direction

NFU Cymru has welcomed the decision of the Environment, Planning and Countryside (EPC) Committee to put a resolution to the Assembly's plenary session which would redistribute expenditure under the Tir Cymru budget line back in favour of the Tir Mynydd scheme for 2008.

John Owen, Chairman NFU Cymru's Less Favoured Area Board said, "I welcome the support of Conservative and Liberal Democrat AMs for the revised budget plan tabled by Plaid Cymru in today's EPC Committee. The budget plan has the potential to reinstate £7m of the proposed budget cuts for Less Favoured Area (LFA) support under the Tir Mynydd scheme in 2008, and would give rise to a budget of some £29m, instead of the proposed reduction to £22m envisaged by the Welsh Assembly Government.

"Today's decision is the first of several hurdles we will have to jump, but it vindicates fourteen months of extensive lobbying by NFU Cymru. I'm pleased that the three opposition parties have agreed to challenge the Welsh Assembly Government's decision to reduce expenditure on support for some of Wales's most vulnerable areas. However, success is not yet in the bag and the next hurdle will be to defeat the inevitable Government resistance and opposition to the proposal when the resolution is tabled at a March session of plenary."

Mr Owen added, "Whilst today's decision to get plenary to agree to reinstate £7m of the £14m cut in the Tir Mynydd budget, set against expenditure in 2006, is a move in the right direction, clearly hill and upland farms will still see a significant reduction in the level of support at a time when market returns, particularly for lamb, are depressed and LFA farm incomes are in decline."