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MG
trials events on farmland could end because of Defra "gold
plating" of an EU directive Howard Gosling feels this is part of the anti motoring lobby within the UK Government. He reminds fellow V8 enthusiasts that it was Gordon Brown who ceased the rolling 25 year free car road tax concession soon after New Labour came to power in 1997. Most MGBGTV8 enthusiasts missed the free road fund licence concession by as little as seven months and feel quite bad about that! He adds "I have emailed you hard copy so you can inform V8 members so they can protest against this dreadful measure and elect MPs who will keep our Freedoms!" Peter Browning, the Motor Sports director at Club Office, responded to a copy of Howard's email by reporting "a notice arrived here today from the MSA re Defra requesting the Club to notify all of our current activities which could be affected. Obviously we will be responding with reference to our trials and other off road activities". Chris Hunt
Cooke, who has both a rally MGB and a V8 Roadster, is the Historic
Rally Car Register treasurer commented "we at HRCR have
joined in the clamour from the motor sports lobby, as it is liable
to affect us as well, we understand that even car parking off road
might be covered". He also mentioned there is an online
petition against the Defra measures where you can add your signature:
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 V8 Register - MG Car Club Our rulers out-Brussels the EU Philip Johnston, writing a piece in the Home Front column in the Daily Telegraph on 25th April 2005, raised serious concerns over Defra's "gold plating" of an EU directive which could have a very serious impact on car trials in the UK. Every weekend, across the country, thousands of motor-sports enthusiasts take part in off-road events such as grass track racing, trialing and motocross on fields that farmers have let them use for generations. But these innocent, if mud splattered, pursuits are under threat because of the way the Government has introduced a new method of paying agricultural subsidies. Out of the blue, the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) has told farmers they will not qualify for an EU farm payment if they allow their land to be used for motor sports. Walking, bird spotting, clay pigeon shooting, gymkhanas, car-boot sales and veteran car rallies (provided the vehicles are stationary) will be permitted; but not motor sports. As a result, hundreds of events are being cancelled because farmers unsurprisingly are withdrawing permission for their fields to be used. Motor-sports organisations and the Country Land & Business Association have been battering on Defra's door in Whitehall in a (so far) forlorn attempt to get it to amend its guidelines to avoid the demise of a sport that has 100,000 adherents. The response from Defra, as it is so often is from the mandarinate when it has messed something up, has been to dismiss such apocalyptic suggestions as unwarranted scare-mongering. But fears of motor-sport's organisers are real. The first sign of the looming crisis came just a few weeks ago as the Government moved to implement the recently agreed EU farm subsidy reforms. These introduced a Single Payment Scheme that pays farmers for the land they own rather than what they produce. The European directive that underpins the subsidies does not prohibit motor sports on land eligible for the payment. But when Defra announced the way it would operate in the UK, it issued guidance setting out a list of activities that would be permitted on land that qualified for payment. Activities to be allowed without restriction include walking, bird spotting, fishing, horse riding, farm visits, local ploughing competitions, shooting game, deer stalking and drag hunting. A second group of activities is to be permitted for 25 days a year and includes clay pigeon shooting, car-boot sales, country fairs and shows, farm auctions and sales, equestrian activities, paragliding and ballooning. A third group of activities, deemed to be "inconsistent with the land being considered as remaining in agricultural use" covered motor sports and places where the principal purpose is for recreational activities, such as a golf course, other permanent sports facilities and gallops. If the farmland was being turned into a permanent race track, you could see the argument here. Why should the taxpayer fork out for an agricultural subsidy on a field that is never going to produce a single potato? But many off-road events take place on just a few days a year, which should not render the land unfarmable. Trial biking, at which Britain is apparently a World force, is essentially a static event that does not churn up the field in any way - motocross would do so. According to Neil Hellings, chief executive of the Auto Cycle Union, there are 7,000 events a year in which 100,000 people participate either as riders, marshals, back-up teams or spectators. A few weeks ago, when farmers started filling in their application forms for the new grants, organisers began to notice they were withdrawing permission for their fields to be used. They were being told by Defra that there would be no payment - often worth thousands of pounds - if the land was given over to motor sports. Out of 220 planned events, 180 have been cancelled in the past month. It is estimated that more than 40% of car competitions will be eliminated and an even bigger proportion of motor cycle events. The solution that Defra is under pressure to adopt would be involve revising its guidelines to farmers to allow subsidies to continue where land is only in temporary use for motor sports, something the various interest groups say is entirely compatible with the EU directive. Indeed they say this has not become an issue anywhere else in the EU and blame Whitehall for "gold plating" the EU directive - that is adding something that merely serves to inconvenience (or worse) the long-suffering, over-regulated, law abiding British. The motor-sports groups have briefed lawyers to take legal action against the Government for judicial review and compensation if this matter is not resolved. Mr Hellings said thousands of small engineering businesses depend for their livelihoods on the continuation of these events. They cannot begin to match the subsidies available to farmers by paying them more to use their land for sport; in any case, many farmers set aside fields free of charge on a goodwill basis. "This is the most serious threat that off-road sport has ever faced and it must be overturned" said Mr Hellings. "The future of our sport is at risk". The sport's organisers believe the UK general election has held up the resolution of the problem and are prepared to give the benefit of the doubt for a cock-up rather than a conspiracy against them. But singling out motor sports could be seen against the backdrop of of a deep-seated animus against all forms of motoring by the present Government. There is anther issue here, of course, which is whether the new payment scheme is a good use of taxpayers' money in the first place, although it is arguably an improvement in the old Common Agricultural Policy subsidy, which encouraged wasteful overproduction. But that is the system we are stuck with, and the Government has made much of the way it could transform farmers into the guardians of the countryside. But the bikers and off-roaders who lawfully and enthusiastically pursue the sports they have enjoyed for years are as much a part of the countryside as the clay pigeon shooter, the car-boot browser and the three day eventer. Why should they be picked on in this way? |
