28 days to protect our countryside

The government has opened a consultation which gives us, the general public, 28 days to give our opinions about how to spend £20bn on the countryside.

Have a look at this BBC article on it, but take a look at the readers' comments at the bottom. It makes worrying reading.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24769777

So, for what little its worth, I'm filling in the government's online survey about it, which is here:

https://consult.defra.gov.uk/communications/cap-consultation/consultation

 

Some farmland about 2 miles from us is earmarked for housing development. Some existing houses also about 2 miles from us are boarded up earmarked for demolition. Its crazy.

The housing shortage is just a big con. I'm sure its nothing at all to do with the fact that, as revealed in a FOI request a few years ago, 80,000 empty residential properties are owned by senior politicians, who of course haven't even thought of creating a housing shortage to boost the values of their private assets.

The government will say that we need more houses. Great, do up some of the dilapidated ones instead of building on farmland and open countryside. The government will say that building new houses will boost the economy by creating jobs for all the construction trades. Great, get those tradesmen to mend up or even rebuild all the dilapidated properties and bring them back into use, again without touching the countryside.

As for farmers getting the subsidies, I agree that farmers should get help if they need it. But, and its a big but, ONLY actual farmers. There was a documentary on a good while ago now that showed that people were simply setting up holding companies, then buying or renting a token piece of land, but doing nothing at all with it, other than claiming subsidies for it. I feel fairly sure that they're not the majority, but that sort of behaviour needs to be stopped. In my simplistic view, farmers should only get subsidies if they are either producing something we need, or in the case where a piece of land is unused for a period, that land is being used to help native flora and fauna.

 

I don't understand half the questions posted.

 

http://farmsubsidy.openspending.org/GB/

If you want to find how much a farmer/company gets, it dosn't show last years moneys
Edit
There is some very good Tax breaks for famers and companys who own land,land will allways be snaped up straight away

 

Same here. I struggled through the first couple of pages, but then I gave up because I shouldn't be allowed to influence something that I don't understand. I'll persevere though, and try to research what they're on about in each question.

True. The fate of the countryside will be decided by the townies. Look forward to Asda appearing right in the middle of the moors.

 

The CAP is changing, it's more to do with if you have subsidy's