I am a Dartmoor barmaid. I ask, ‘why do we dislike Natural England (NE), yet delight in Natural England?' Here's what I see in the pub. I see shock if ponies are culled to make way for cattle and a supplement. I hear NE say, ‘It's not us, the farmers decide'.
I hear civil servants say, ‘if you would just work together….' I hear farmers are paid. I hear the money goes to landowners through rising rents. I hear NE bemoans getting difficult commoners to agree. I hear NE lies and bullies (cross-compliance). I see NE celebrating the moor before them, but the bit they are looking at has never been in a stewardship agreement.
I look for wildlife: I see dense molinia. No falling seed can reach the soil; no light could reach it if it did. No livestock, no dung, no beetles, no flies, no birds. I hear it is because of farmers/swaling/atmospheric nitrogen, but definitely not an NE failure, nor due to past headage payment policy.
In his Farming Matters column (FG, August 11), Geoff Sansome says NE does not dictate and is not anti-farming. I ask, ‘is the Dartmoor Review up to sorting this out in three months, or is it window-dressing?'
See also: Letters: 'We are losing land all the time by building houses'
