Gloucestershire landowner Henry Robinson has been elected Deputy President of the 35,000-strong Country Land and Business Association.
Mr Robinson, the Association’s former Vice-President, was elected Deputy to the CLA’s new president, Harry Cotterell, at the Association’s annual meeting in London last week.
Mr Cotterell owns and manages a 1,600-acre traditional family estate in Herefordshire. The mainly arable farming operation is all “in hand” growing wheat and oilseed rape but recently planted cider orchards produce up to 10,000 tonnes of apples a year. There is also a commercial forestry operation covering 700 acres and the farm provides one million chickens per year and 25,000lbs of mushrooms a week for a supermarket chain.
Mr Cotterell, who has been CLA Deputy President since 2009, will serve as President for two years. He said: “I am honoured to have been chosen to lead the Association and am looking forward to the challenges ahead such as CAP reform, planning reform and the Water White Paper. “
Mr Robinson says, he is committed to rural life in Gloucestershire where he has farmed since 1978. He has been chair of the county’s Rural Issues Task Force, a member of Gloucestershire First and the Rural Economic Advisory Panel; a Parish Councillor and school Governor and he remains a Deputy-Lieutenant for the County. He says he farms, manages, and generally enjoys the land, cottages, workshops and woodlands that make up the family farm near Cirencester.
He has been Chairman of the CLA’s Gloucestershire Branch, represented the South West on the CLA Council, and chaired the national Business and Rural Economy and the Environment Sub-Committees.
Mr Robinson said it was a great privilege to be asked to serve an organisation which campaigned so actively for the rural economy and which was the only organisation speaking up for property rights and land ownership.
“The challenges facing the countryside are many and various - but one of the very greatest will be the question of how to protect and enhance the landscape and environment while still producing food for a world with seven billion people in it.
“Closer to home, we are very engaged with the debate on the National Planning Policy Framework and how planning needs to change in order to encourage rural business and allow it to flourish. The CLA has been – and will continue - to campaign for high speed Broadband for all rural areas and appropriate renewable energy on farms.”
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Ends
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
CLA Backs Attempt to Scrap the Cash
The theft of metal from farms and rural businesses has grown to epidemic proportions according to South West landowners who have now thrown their weight behind a Private Member’s Bill which will attempt to block the sale of stolen metal.
“Scrap metal is currently big business – and its no longer restricted to the theft of lead from the Church roof, now its overhead cables, copper of all kinds – which affect the telecommunications and electricity supply industries - and even barbed wire and other fencing has been stripped out for the value of the scrap,” said CLA South West Director, John Mortimer.
Lancashire MP, Graham Jones, will today (Tuesday 16 November) bring his “Metal Theft (Protection) Bill” before the House of Commons next week – and the CLA says it offers a solution to the problem.
Mr Jones says that the reason this type of crime is flourishing is because the regulatory framework surrounding metal recycling is so weak and that - in combination with the soaring international price of metal –effectively creates an incentive to steal.
“Farm yards and rural businesses have always been a prime target for thefts and landowners are currently suffering an epidemic of metal theft. Mr Jones’s proposed changes to the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 and his other proposals are essential if this blight is to be ended quickly and effectively,” said Mr Mortimer.
Mr Jones’s Metal (Protection) Bill proposes six changes:
• Amend the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 and replace the current registration scheme with a robust licensing regime, with scrap metal dealers paying a licence fee to fund the regulation of the licence.
• Allow property obtained through theft to be regarded as criminal assets; that would allow the provisions in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to apply.
• Grant police authorities the power to search and investigate all premises owned and operated by a scrap metal dealer, and to close scrap metal dealers where criminally obtained materials are discovered.
• Restrict the trade in scrap metals to cashless payments, and introduce a requirement that scrap metal must not be sold or processed until payments have been cleared. Photo identification and CCTV should be mandatory to identify sellers of scrap and their vehicles.
• Magistrates should have powers to add licence restrictions and prevent closed yards from re-opening.
• Amend The Theft Act and related Acts so that suspects caught should be charged and if found guilty, sentenced in such a way that is proportionate to the consequences of the crime, not the scrap metal value.
“The true cost of the theft is more than simply the value of the items taken due to lost production time, repairing damage caused, livestock straying due to gates left open or fencing taken down so we support this effort to bring about a change in the law,” said Mr Mortimer.
“Scrap metal is currently big business – and its no longer restricted to the theft of lead from the Church roof, now its overhead cables, copper of all kinds – which affect the telecommunications and electricity supply industries - and even barbed wire and other fencing has been stripped out for the value of the scrap,” said CLA South West Director, John Mortimer.
Lancashire MP, Graham Jones, will today (Tuesday 16 November) bring his “Metal Theft (Protection) Bill” before the House of Commons next week – and the CLA says it offers a solution to the problem.
Mr Jones says that the reason this type of crime is flourishing is because the regulatory framework surrounding metal recycling is so weak and that - in combination with the soaring international price of metal –effectively creates an incentive to steal.
“Farm yards and rural businesses have always been a prime target for thefts and landowners are currently suffering an epidemic of metal theft. Mr Jones’s proposed changes to the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 and his other proposals are essential if this blight is to be ended quickly and effectively,” said Mr Mortimer.
Mr Jones’s Metal (Protection) Bill proposes six changes:
• Amend the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 and replace the current registration scheme with a robust licensing regime, with scrap metal dealers paying a licence fee to fund the regulation of the licence.
• Allow property obtained through theft to be regarded as criminal assets; that would allow the provisions in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to apply.
• Grant police authorities the power to search and investigate all premises owned and operated by a scrap metal dealer, and to close scrap metal dealers where criminally obtained materials are discovered.
• Restrict the trade in scrap metals to cashless payments, and introduce a requirement that scrap metal must not be sold or processed until payments have been cleared. Photo identification and CCTV should be mandatory to identify sellers of scrap and their vehicles.
• Magistrates should have powers to add licence restrictions and prevent closed yards from re-opening.
• Amend The Theft Act and related Acts so that suspects caught should be charged and if found guilty, sentenced in such a way that is proportionate to the consequences of the crime, not the scrap metal value.
“The true cost of the theft is more than simply the value of the items taken due to lost production time, repairing damage caused, livestock straying due to gates left open or fencing taken down so we support this effort to bring about a change in the law,” said Mr Mortimer.
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