Grass Tracks round Arable land

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feet

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Hey, Does anyone here have a grass track for riding on round agricultural land which received Cross Compliance payments? If so, how did you go about getting it legally, as Ive been told ill need planning permission but I know some people have it without and they also get the payments. Ill try and explain better. Say my track runs down the side of a hedge I must leave 2m for cross compliance say I want a 3m track can I have the track include the 2m cc bit or must my track be 5m wide? Has anyone had these issues?

Thanks

Hannah
 
Is that for your personal use or for a livery yard? If its for a livery yard did u mention it when you put in for planning permission with your stables? Also how does it work with Business rates?
 
I didn't mention anything, I just ride over field margins... and my clients do, too.
As to the business rates, I'm still in my 3 years grace period on diversification project, so don't know yet, but i wouldn't imagine it has anything to do with riding over margins, after all the riding is only incidental activity.
 
Your track should be independant of the buffer strip, the buffer strip cannot be cut between march 1st and aug 1st. If you want to double check and not risk losing any payments phone natural england.
 
We arent allowed to ride down the margins of any fields and were told if any hoof marks were found the farmer would not get paid for them. :confused:
 
Kaylum, your farmer might be enrolled into environmental stewardship scheme. For the standard Single Payment Scheme, obligatory set aside doesn't exist any more, so there is no cross compliance issue there.
 
"If a hoof mark is found the farmer will not be paid." Slightly stretching things here, a good excuse to keep horses off.
The simplest way is to have the margins wider than necessary. There are some wildlife strips that must not be ridden on, but farms with riding routes leave an extra wide strip for the rides. It is a matter of degree too - if they are trashed in wet weather and the grass cover destroyed, than an inspector might kick up, but if there is plenty of cover then it should be OK.

Natural England provides information about this, if you can track it down.
 
I didnt know if it was true or not just what we were told. I dont understand that side of farming LOL!
 
I might be stating the obvious here but thought id point out your grass margin strips are measured from the centre line of the hedges, some people no this but there are a few who dont and make mistakes.
Cheers
 
Orangehorse - that is what im always told but I know people do ride on the strips. We have a lot of land and ive been told that if we are found to be doing something wrong then they can get us to pay the money back and this could be up to 5 years worth of payments, obviously I dont want this to happen.
Yes Jamesearwaker - I know it is from the middle of the hege 2m and 1m from dykes (or is that the otherway round) But if we put say a 4m grass track round all our fields, the question is could I ride on all of it, or just the extra after the 1 or 2m nearest the hedge or dyke? We arn't in any extra schemes or anything.
 
Its the 2m from the middle of the hedge out into the field that you cannot touch, certain rules on topping it or driving on, but if you put another 2m at the side of that and keep it out of any scheme then you can do what you like with it.
 
The best thing to do is to telephone DEFRA and get the correct answer. Don't admit to anything, just enquire, but find out the name of the person giving you the answer and get it in writing if possible, even if only in an email. There are different schemes so what is correct on one farm may not be the same on another.
 
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