River Till Dip Reduction Fund - Ref No. XA319/2008
Background
River Till area map
This product contains mapping data licensed from Ordnance Survey © Crown Copyright and/or database right 2008. Licence number 100022521.
The aim of the River Till Sheep Dip Reduction Project is to minimise the risk of sheep dip pollution in the Tweed (England) and Lindisfarne catchment area whilst farmers continue to effectively control ecto-parasites in sheep.
The River Till Sheep Dip Pollution Reduction Project is a partnership project between Northumberland National Park Authority (NNPA), England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative (ECSFDI) and the Environment Agency.
The England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative XA 117/2007 provided advice to a number of landowners in the River Till Dip Sheep Reduction Project catchment area. A number of farmers applied for grants under this scheme and not all the grant applications were successful.
The ECSFDI/ Defra Capital Grants funded £9,700 for implementing some improvements. This funding wasn’t targeted at the "red risk" dippers. Which are considered to be of high pollution risk. Several "red risk" dippers still require works to improve their sheep dipping facilities.
In order to improve the remaining "red risk" dippers and complete the project, extra funding has been secured from the Environment Agency (£34,000).
This phase of the project will consist of grants of up to 50% for the improvement works to "red risk" dippers.
The scheme will help sheep farmers to invest in dipper improvements, resulting in more environmentally efficient sheep dips.
These improvements include:
- Renewal of Dip Tanks.
- Extra / improved splash protection.
- Concreting of the sheep draining area (post dipping).
- Concreting the Apron / Bunding / Surge protection around dipping area.
- Net fencing to hold the sheep, thus allowing fleece to be fully dry, before sheep pass over drains and streams.
If no improvement works are carried out almost half of the dippers in the target area will pose a high risk of pollution to the River Till.
While the aim for the project is to raise awareness of effective ecto-parasite control and to minimise the risk of sheep dip pollution in the Tweed (England) and Lindisfarne catchment the focus now is to tackle the "red risk" dipping facilities.
Who is Eligible
To be eligible, farmers needed to comply with the following criteria:
- Manage an agricultural holding / business within the catchment area and Northumberland National Park.
- Grant applications can only be submitted by farmers who have already had animal health and dipper improvement plans drawn up as part of the River Till Dip Reduction Project. All qualifying holdings will be invited by letter to submit a grant application. The applications will be assessed from 8 September 2008.
- The farm business must be classified as a small or medium sized enterprise (SME) in line with Annex 1 of Commission Regulation 70/2001 (as amended). In summary, a SME:
• has fewer than 250 employees;
• has either an annual turnover not exceeding 50 million euros, or a balance sheet total not exceeding 43 million euros and is independent;
• the criteria must be applied to the company as a whole (including subsidiaries located in other Member States and outside the EU).
The scheme is in accordance with Article 4 of Commission Regulation 1857/2006. The aid intensity of 50% is in accordance with Article 4.2(a) (the scheme is to run in a less favoured area and entitled to the higher aid intensity rate of 50%) The maximum amount of aid granted to an individual enterprise will not exceed 500,000 Euros.
Grant Details
We have estimated that dipper improvements will cost up to a maximum of £5,000 per farm and we will be match funding at 50%. The applications will be assessed from 8 September 2008.
- The last date for applications is 31 Dec 2008.
- The final date for payment will be 31 March 2010.
- Work will have to be completed and inspected before payment.
The current project area covers a total area of 283.75 km2, about 25% of Tweed (England) and Lindisfarne catchment area.
How will success of this Project be evaluated?
There will be four levels of evaluation:
- Numbers of farmers that have health plans carried out (funded by EA)
- Number of farmers that attend the workshop to learn more about the environmental issues
- Number of dipper improvement plans implemented
- Changes in water quality.
Closing date
The project will close on 31st March 2010. It will also close to new entries on 30th June 2009. Final payments will be made on 31st March 2010.
