What's new - November 2008

 

Welcome to the web update page.  The aim of this page is to highlight new information relevant to Grants and Regulations.  Previous months updates can be accessed via the left hand links.
If you wish to have electronic updates emailed to you as soon as they are published, please use the subscribe link on the right.

Woodland Creation Grant Round 2008

The latest application round closed at the end of September. In summary we received 379 applications for 2028 hectares. All but one of the applications have passed the scoring round making a total of 2027 hectares. A regional breakdown of what we received and accepted is available via the right hand link on the WCG page. 

Regional teams are busy processing all of the successful applications and issuing contracts in time for planting this season.

Annual payments

We have started to make our annual autumn payments for Woodland Management Grant and Farm Woodland grants (FWS, FWPS and FWP). The Rural Payments Agency has informed us that we can start making payments and we have carried out set aside deductions where appropriate. We will endeavour to make as many payments as possible in the coming weeks. Further details regarding annual payments, including reasons why there may be delays on individual claims and Farm Woodland Payments capping for non-farmers, are on the Annual Payments page.

Farm Woodland and Premium Scheme management

The management of Farm Woodland legacy schemes (Farm Woodland Scheme and Farm Woodland Premium Scheme) has been transferred to some regional offices. In summary, the following offices now handle agreements:

• Mamhead office in South West - agreements in South West, North West and Yorkshire and Humber regions
• Alice Holt office in South East - agreements in South East, London, East Midlands and North East
• Worcester office in West Midlands - agreements in West Midlands and East England.

More detailed contact information is given in the Farm Woodlands contact details sheet (PDF 42kb). EWGS applications and contracts (including EWGS Farm Woodland Payments) continue to be handled by local offices and remain unchanged.

If you wish to unsubscribe from EWGS Updates please email June Wells.
Any queries about the content of this update should be directed to your regional contact, or to the EWGS advice line 01223 346004.