Ministerial retreat on RPA payments
Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Marine, Landscape and Rural Affairs, has today (Friday) revised down targets for the Rural Payments Agency to ensure vital grants are awarded to farmers on time. On Monday, the Minister told the RPA that it should pay 80% of the value of valid Single Payment Scheme grants for 2008, by the end of the year, leaving at least one in five grants unpaid. Today, the Government has admitted only 75% of the grant will be paid on time, leaving at... Read More
Outrage at ‘second class treatment’ for Cornish farmers
Cornwall’s MPs say local farmers are getting a ‘second class service from a third rate Government’, following a ministerial announcement today. Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Marine, Landscape and Rural Affairs, has set targets for the Rural Payments Agency, which will allow it to deprive at least one in five farmers of their full 2008 SPS payment by the end of the year. A full 10% of 2008 SPS payments will still not be made by March 2009. The Welsh... Read More
MP attacks ‘Orwellian’ Post Office closure process
North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson, has slammed Post Office Limited for failing to meet him with local councillors, as arranged. The local MP finally tracked down one of the Post Office officials wielding the axe over Cornish branches, after staff from the London headquarters failed to keep an arrangement with him. All Post Office branches that are under threat have now been informed, the MP has learned, but strict secrecy contracts mean that local postmasters are... Read More
MP demands safe crossing at Quintrell Downs
Lives are at risk on the A392 through Quintrell Downs, according to local MP Dan Rogerson. The North Cornwall MP met with Trevor Beard, a resident of Quintrell Gardens, and Colan Parish Council Chairman, Cllr Russell Walkey, this week to observe the difficulties people living on the north side of East Road face getting to local services, like the Post Office, in the village. Mr Beard said he often had to wait for several minutes at refuges, with petrified parents and... Read More
French Government must act to stop blockades
Blockades and threats of sabotage by French fishermen are ‘irresponsible’ and ‘counterproductive’, according to North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson. The local Liberal Democrat MP met with UK fishermen in Newquay this week to hear the difficulties they face as global oil price rises have seen the cost of re diesel soar. UK fishermen are doing their best to cope with the hikes, and continue to fish successfully. But they face blockades... Read More
MP slams Launceston Tax Office closure plan
The Government came clean today [Wednesday] about proposals to close Launceston’s tax office. North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson, has accused the Government of ‘deceit and dissembling’ over the plan, which the Public and Commercial Services Union first anticipated over a year ago. Mr Rogerson has repeatedly raised the issue in Westminster and locally, while Treasury Ministers have denied that the tax office was at risk. Commenting, Mr Rogerson... Read More
