Show north west hill farmers they’re not forgotten says NFU

Vital hill farm support still hasn't been received by some farmers in Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire – and they're beginning to feel the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) have forgotten about them warn the NFU.

The Hill Farm Allowance (HFA) assists farmers in maintaining the unique and beautiful upland countryside. And in many cases it also helps alleviate the hardship that some hill farmers face due to high winter feeding bills.

National uplands spokesman and Keswick farmer Will Cockbain said: "It is totally unacceptable as we approach the autumn sales period that many farmers are still awaiting HFA payments which were due in the spring.

"We are being told by the RPA that the bottleneck which has occurred in the last two weeks is now clearing and payments should now speed up.

"While we have lobbied both Defra and the RPA over the unacceptable delays to this year's payment we are also putting pressure on to ensure the same mistakes are not made next year and the RPA has assured us a system will be in place for next year which will rectify the vast majority of this year's problems.

"We have also pointed out some payments are wrong and again have been assured checks will be made once all HFAs are completed to pick up on any mistakes.

"There have been particular problems with some commons but we are now led to believe that the problems that have occurred on these commons have been resolved."