Rooted in Cumbria

The Federation of Cumbria Commoners is a member-led organisation dedicated to promoting commoning in Cumbria. Our overall aim is to maintain and improve the viability of hill farming on common land.

We want this website to:

  • Inform you about new issues in commoning
  • Let you know what we are doing
  • Make our voice heard all over the world and much more

Restarting the process to establish a Commons Council for Cumbria

Brexit is a game changer for agriculture. The government of the United Kingdom will have to develop its own policy towards farming and rural land use to replace the Common Agricultural Policy. If commoning is to remain viable in this post-Brexit world, then commoners need to have a voice in the design of new agricultural policy and systems of payment. We believe a commons council for Cumbria is now more necessary than ever. It will give us better chance of getting heard and help us maintain the commons and promote good standards of livestock husbandry.

application/pdf iconcommons_council_leaflet_16-11-16_.pdf
Submitted on Monday 5th December 2016

Meeting with RPA, Friday 25th November

We have had a response to our joint letter from the NFU, CLA and the Federation to Mark Grimshaw, CEO of RPA - see below. We will be meeting Paul Caldwell Operations Director, RPA in Carlisle on November 25th.

NFU will be puting together a number of questions that we want answers to on the day. If you have any suggestions, please get in touch.

application/pdf iconmark_grimshaw_08-11-16.pdf
Submitted on Tuesday 15th November 2016

George Eustice may believe that commoners have received their BPS 2015, but this isn't the case

It was reported in the Cumberland News that George Eustice, Minister of State, Defra told the audience at the Northern Farmer Conference in Hexham, last week that as far as he was aware all commoners had now received their 2015 farm payments. We know that this is not true, but then he may have been misreported.

Today I sent him the following e-mail and I will post his response when I receive it. 

Submitted on Tuesday 15th November 2016

Errors in BPS payments on commons coming to light

The RPA has recently published a pdf showing the BPS eligible areas of English commons and the total livestock units available. It can be found here.

application/pdf iconjcwa-leadsom-re_commons_2015_bps_02-11-16.pdf
Submitted on Wednesday 2nd November 2016

RPA still finds excuses for their poor delivery of BPS 2015 on commons

Our local MP Tim Farron has been working hard on our behalf to get explanations to our questions on non-payment of BPS on common land. See below for the latest round of correspondence.

Submitted on Wednesday 2nd November 2016

What England's Uplands provides

Click on the picture to see what the uplands provide.

To see the sources for all the figures in the picture click on the file below.

 

application/pdf iconupland_statistics_for_england-sources.pdf
Submitted on Wednesday 5th October 2016
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About the Federation