Farmers should have expected the truth

- Now we must have some honest answers -

Douglas Chalmers, Director CLA North has found the latest comments by Margaret Beckett on the Single Farm Payment particularly outrageous.

"I find it hard to believe that the Secretary of State now says that "farmers should never have expected payment before the end of June". Up until now she and her colleagues have given assurances that various earlier deadlines would be met.

"It is bad enough that these deadlines were repeatedly missed, but now to be told that we should never have taken those deadlines seriously simply beggars belief. We couldn't treat our children, our colleagues or our customers in this way so why repeatedly mislead farmers, the agricultural supply industry and the public?

"Government advice on dealing with cash flow problems remains to talk to the bank, but with the industry's interest bill reportedly running at £1.3 million a week, this is simply deferring a huge crisis. And with the supply trade being as supportive as possible, but without the security of the banks, we must fear for them also.

"Defra Minister Elliot Morley has already admitted this fiasco has been caused "by a failure of management … at the Rural Payments Agency", yet it is farmers and others in the agricultural industry that are the victims. Other Government Departments are called to public account when they make mistakes, yet we still cannot see the end of this mess.

"Will some one please answer the following questions?

- When can all farmers expect at least their promised partial payment?

- Why is Defra insisting that farmers return information based on unconfirmed data or else face penalties, when Defra is seeking to avoid its own fines?

- Can we expect the same fiasco next year, and if not, what will have changed?

"The CLA has been expressing its concerns on this since 2004. Last September I was told that there was no contingency plan because payments would be made in February. Since then, various dates and targets have been missed. Now we need a clear, unambiguous, time bound statement that will be honoured."