MP calls on Beckett to pay farmers immediately

12.00.00am GMT Tue 21st Mar 2006

Local MP Tim Farron has demanded that the Government make long overdue payments to local farmers immediately. Tim has submitted a written question to the Secretary of State Margaret Beckett which calls on her to ensure that Single Farm Payments are made at once. Tim has asked that farmers are paid on the basis of land areas on the rural land register in order to avoid further hardship for farmers. Whilst some of the information of the rural land register may be incorrect, Tim feels that something must be paid immediately to help farmers and alterations should be made at a later date.

Tim is also one of the signatories to an Early Day Motion which recognises that most farmers have yet to receive anything through the Single Farm Payments Scheme. It calls on the Government to guarantee that those farmers who have not yet received their payments will have them by the end of March.

Tim commented: "I speak with local farmers regularly on the phone, at my surgeries and on site at local farms. Most of them have received nothing in the Single Farm Payments Scheme and many are facing desperate hardship as a result. Farmers are being forced into debt and desperation because of Government failure. It is the Government's responsibility to take immediate action".