Minister vows to ease planning restrictions to benefit farmers
Last updated 09:40, Friday, 25 July 2008
Farming minister Lord Rooker has pledged to work towards creating a more farmer friendly planning system.
The Minister for Sustainable Food and Farming and Animal Health was at the Cumberland Show on Saturday to judge a schools’ competition when he spoke to The Cumberland News.
He said: “If there is one more thing I want to do as a minister, it is to sort out the planning system.
“I want to make it farmer-friendly and remove barriers to diversification. It is one area where I feel I’ve not done as much as I wanted to.
“I got side-tracked by foot and mouth last year.
“I want the farmers to stay in the hills and be sustainable but they are very restricted on what they can do at the moment.
“We have started talks but because of other pressures, we’ve not been able to push but I think I should have pushed it more.”
Making it easier to convert redundant buildings and introducing flexibility to hours of usage are two key areas he will focus on.
His office produced a report on proposed changes to the planning system last year.
Lord Rooker added: “I’m not talking about a free for all, I think more farmers should be able to stay in the countryside, particularly tenant farmers.
“The sort of thing I’m talking about is the rules on the shape of roofs being overly restrictive.”
He spoke of his close affiliation to the county, as he holidays every summer in the Lake District.
Rather than stay in a city hotel, he opted to spend the night at Slack House Farm, Gilsland, after attending a reception on Friday night for local farmers involved in the Year of Food and Farming events.
At the show, he judged entries from schools who visited farms earlier this year. Each made a model to depict the journey of food from farm to plate and Wiggonby School’s entry won top prize. Lord Rooker said he was asked last year if he would come to the show to judge the competition. He said he had not thought he would still be a minister now and hinted that he was expecting a Government reshuffle.
The peer also visited the NFU stand to meet senior farmers and local politicians.
Top of the agenda was bluetongue and the likely timetable for Cumbria going into the protection zone.
He was reminded of the impact last year’s foot and mouth outbreak had had on the Cumbrian industry.
Those gathered told him a repeat must be avoided and that it was time to ensure the bluetongue vaccine was available to Cumbrian farmers as soon as possible.
