Alarmingly, bird flu is on the rise – new laws apply to backyard poultry keepers too, says NFU county advisor Gemma Harvey
The 2021/22 winter season saw the worst outbreak of avian influenza, more commonly known as bird flu, that the UK has ever experienced, with more than 130 cases across the country. In previous years, cases have gradually subsided as spring approached, with none reported over the summer months, but that was not the case this year. Over the summer and on into the autumn, avian influenza persisted and a steady trickle of cases has continued. In recent weeks the number of confirmed cases has significantly increased.
Backyard chickens Cases are not just confined to the commercial poultry sector – around half of the confirmed cases in winter 2021/22 were in backyard flocks. In response to the rising number of cases, on Monday 17th October a nationwide avian influenza prevention zone came into force, meaning that it is now a legal requirement for all bird keepers in Great Britain to follow strict biosecurity measures to protect their flocks from the threat of infection.
How is bird flu spread? Bird flu is spread by direct contact between birds and through contamination in the environment, for example in bird droppings. This means wild birds carrying the disease can infect domestic poultry, so the best way to reduce the risk of your poultry catching bird flu is to minimise the chance of them coming into contact with wild birds or their droppings, by practising good biosecurity and safety measures. To help prevent the spread of the disease it is important to review the biosecurity measures that are currently in place in your flock. The NFU has produced a helpful poster (opposite) to help you understand key areas to think about when it comes to protecting your birds. This in turn will protect not only your own flock but other backyard farmers – and support British poultry.
Poultry sector under pressure NFU Poultry Board chairman James Mottershead says: ‘The sheer persistence of AI (avian influenza) over the past year, coupled with soaring energy and feed costs, has put the whole British poultry sector under huge emotional and financial pressure.’ To receive the latest news and advice should there be a Bird Flu outbreak, poultry keepers can sign up to the APHA poultry register. The NFU recommends that anyone with poultry or captive birds, no matter how many are in the flock, should register for free by clicking here or do so via the helpline on 03000 200 301.
If you suspect Avian Influenza in your flock, please contact your vet immediately.
Roger Guttridge revisits the hillside site of Shaftesbury Workhouse
The former Shaftesbury Union Workhouse All pictures from Roger Guttridge’s book Shaftesbury Through Time
A century ago, it was one of the dominant buildings on Shaftesbury’s southern slopes, but today you have to look hard even to find a vestige of the Union Workhouse. In fact, the only detectable remains of the Dickensian edifice are the brick entrance splay, which has been filled in, and part of the old nurses’ quarters and washroom, which survive as a single-storey bungalow known as Valley Cottage. The 19th century building in Umbers Hill off Breach Lane was constructed in local stone, some of which was quarried on or near the site. The Union Workhouse succeeded two poorhouses – one at Motcombe, which housed the women, the other at Gillingham, which accommodated men.
The surviving former nurses’ quarters and washroom
It took time to find a suitable site for the workhouse. One negotiation was abandoned after Earl Grosvenor suddenly realised the proposed building might be visible from Motcombe House.
Three young women, a baby and a dog relax in the field now occupied by Shaftesbury Homegrown
The workhouse stigma Once it did open, the typically austere-looking workhouse accepted poor folk not only from Shaftesbury but also Gillingham and many surrounding villages, including the Stours and Fontmell Magna. In Shaftesbury: An Illustrated History, Brenda Innes quotes a couple of touching entries from the 19 volumes of workhouse minutes. One records an offer by Mary Foot and her mother to maintain her brother’s illegitimate child to save it from a workhouse upbringing. Another refers to an old woman’s friends, who ‘refused to let her be taken into the workhouse’. Both these references serve as reminders of the stigma that going into the workhouse involved in Victorian times. So does the story of Shaftesbury’s Doctor Harris, who attended the confinements of gypsy women needing medical attention, to spare them the ordeal of giving birth in the workhouse. The Union Workhouse, also known as Alcester House, was demolished in the early 1950s and replaced by modern houses and bungalows. On the opposite side of Breach Lane, a field has been transformed into Shaftesbury Homegrown, a community farm and allotments.
The workhouse site today as viewed from Shaftesbury Homegrown. Image: Roger Guttridge
It’s time to grab the opportunity and place the environmental agenda back on the top of the To Do list, says North Dorset Green Party’s Ken Huggins
I love rollercoasters, with their mash up of anticipation, exhilaration and anxiety. There’s something about their manic twists and turns, the grindingly slow climbs to a peak followed by the gut-wrenching drop into a trough. Some have a corkscrew, where briefly you don’t know which way is up. An appropriate metaphor for the present state of UK politics perhaps – but I’m also minded of another ride I remember. Called the Black Hole, in near total darkness it plummeted downwards at breakneck speed in a death spiral … After the crashing end to Truss’s brief attempt at government, the hope was that Sunak would be a steadying influence as Prime Minister. That hope was rocked with the announcement of his new cabinet, which included the removal from cabinet meetings of Alok Sharma (the UK’s president of COP26) and climate minister Graham Stuart. In spite of his previous promise to prioritise the environment, Sunak also announced that he would not attend the COP27 summit because of ‘pressing domestic commitments’. And it was confirmed that King Charles would remain effectively banned from attending the summit. This all sent totally the wrong message – that the environmental crisis can wait – when the opposite is true. For decades politicians have delayed taking action to tackle environmental issues, including our reliance on fossil fuels. This is now costing us dearly, especially those who can least afford it. The longer we leave it the more it will cost, in lives and livelihoods as well as finance. Some argue that we can’t afford action, but inaction will cost vastly more. Plus we have a golden opportunity to rebuild the world economy in a truly sustainable way that focuses on quality of life, not on the accumulation of money and stuff. There has now thankfully been another screeching government U-turn, and Sunak will attend COP27 after all. Now the UK needs to lead international cooperation to take the actions needed to urgently address the environmental crisis. It is the most pressing issue of our time, and dealing with it properly can create a better life for us all. Let’s get that rollercoaster heading upwards !
Farmer George Hosford discusses the latest news on ELMS, crosses his fingers on the new oilseed rape, and says goodbye to two old friends
Flowery strip in a field of spring barley, hopefully it will be a source of beetle and aphid munchers.
Autumn sowing has proceeded at pace over the last three weeks; all is sown apart from two small fields of wheat, though the rain has made the last 10 days a bit of an on/off affair. I am hesitant to mention the new season oilseed rape crop – it needs a little longer to determine whether all of it will see the season out, though it may have turned the corner in the last 10 days, in spite of a slug and flea beetle onslaught. Delayed sowing thanks to the august drought meant that emergence coincided with the main beetle hatch, and although we have been trying to encourage predator insects with a more flowery habitat, the crop has still suffered. Perhaps though, had we not established the extra habitat, the crop would have failed completely.
Harvesting wild seed We are in the first year of a new Countryside Stewardship agreement, and as well as the infield flowery strips, a significant part of it involves establishing six metre flower margins around the arable fields that don’t already have them. Many of our fields have had them in place since we first entered HLS (Higher Level Stewardship scheme) in 2010, when we used purchased seed to establish them. This time we have used our own seed, harvested this summer from a field of downland reversion created in 2010 as part of that original HLS – which itself had been sown with seed harvested from much older existing downland. It was, on that occasion, harvested by a seed specialist with a brush harvester and a tractor with very wide set wheels on very steep banks. We cut this year’s seed with our own combine. It has now been analysed and 14 flower species have been identified, as well as a number of grasses. Fingers crossed for a good germination.
The latest on ELMS The SFI, (Sustainable Farming Incentive) is the wide-ranging basic level of ELMS (DEFRA’s environmental land management scheme) designed to attract many farmers into environmentally-beneficial activity. The NFU is calling for it to be pushed ahead with vigour and to deliver 70 per cent of farmers, with 65 per cent of the ELMS budget. But DEFRA have yet to acknowledge that this is what will be needed to achieve their aims. ELMS is intended to be a partial successor to the BPS (Basic Payment Scheme), a relic of the EU days, which is being reduced to zero in annual stages over seven years. It is not pretended that ELMS will replace the BPS, but ELMS will offer farmers public money for providing public goods, in the shape of environmental enhancement. Supporting food production has been deemed to be less deserving of support with public money … There are two other strands to ELMS, in addition to SFI. Local Nature Recovery is touted as the replacement for Countryside Stewardship (CS), and could perhaps be wound in and simply emerge as an evolved version of CS, without the upheaval of a whole new scheme. Secondly there is Landscape Recovery, which needs to be handled with great care. It is likely to operate across a limited number of large areas where groups of landowners get together with a particular outcome in mind. Each of the 24 pilot projects recently announced will receive £500,000 to develop their projects. If this is likely to result in large areas taken out of food production then the potential environmental gain will need to make a very strong case. The NFU is asking for a pause in broader ELMS development, in order to take full account of the changed situation across the world, the Ukraine war, the energy crisis, climate change and the ongoing aftermath of the COVID pandemic, not to mention the consequences of Brexit – all have affected food supply and flow around the world. If there is to be a pause in ELMS roll out in order to ensure that all these things reach fruition, then a delay in the reduction of BPS must also remain on the table.
Insufficient hedgerows We now know what SFI can look like in reality for the two standards which are so far available (arable and grassland soils). The interface is straightforward and the application is easy to complete online, though the level of funding may not be high enough. Let us hope that more standards will appear very soon, but they must be fit for purpose before release. Draft versions of a Hedgerow Standard, for example, still need further work; a way needs to be found whereby SFI would fund farmers to plant new hedges in the advanced level. This could achieve much take-up and make a real difference. Hedges have the potential to provide huge environmental gain, but the key will be the funding. The ‘income foregone plus costs’ model that DEFRA is currently hooked on will not cover all the work needed to be done to many existing hedges, and if trying to get new ones planted, will be utterly insufficient.
School visit champions Lastly, we bade goodbye to two old and faithful animal friends this year, both of whom were stars every time we a school trip visits the farm. At the end of a visit, after looking at growing crops, cows with calves, doing a woodland trail and checking out shiny giant machinery, we usually finish with a visit to the paddock where the old pony and the tame sheep live. We always go armed with a bag of toast, which is handed out to the children and immediately snatched from them by the greedy, though surprisingly gentle, sheep (and the pony if she is quick enough). Florrie the pony was allegedly 38 this year. Sadly 2022 was as far as she could manage, and so too it was for Rocky, a wether lamb from 2012. Junior family members had lambed his mother – he was a big fellow, and the birth proved too much for his mother, who did not survive. Once my 12 year-old recovered from the shock of witnessing the ewe’s demise, she gleefully brought him home to join that year’s band of orphan lambs. From that moment, a life of luxury and uselessness was assured, though poor Rocky had his share of troubles. First there was the time he got himself breached in the bushes, and had it not been for the eagle eye of Jayne he would have expired there. Then there were the many episodes of the hole in his back. What started with a small injury at shearing turned into a massive issue once the magpies spotted it and got dug in. First we tried disinfectant spray and Stockholm tar, but that just trickled away in the sunshine. Then we tried a lady sheep’s prolapse harness (the indignity of it), but he would shrug it off and the magpie was back in a trice. The stupid animal would just let it peck away. Ugh. After that we tried stitching a patch to his wool; knitting it might have been better, but the wool was too short, and the patch didn’t survive trips into the bushes. Finally Nicki hit on the genius idea of the glue gun (a wonderful tool for a multitude of situations). The glued-on patch lasted weeks, enabling the wound to make a full recovery! Last Sunday afternoon a walker informed us that there was a suspiciously dead-looking animal lying on its side in the paddock. We had only moved them that morning, and Rocky had trotted along happily, so the end had been thankfully swift, lying peacefully in the autumn sunshine. Between them Florrie and Rocky must have met over 3,000 children. That’s a lot of toast.
In the mini budget announced by the Chancellor in September some changes were made to the thresholds at which Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) becomes payable. These changes now affect all residential purchases.
The first change is increasing the price from which SDLT becomes payable, from £125,000 to £250,000. This means that for all property purchases of less than £250,000 there is now no SDLT to pay at all.
The new Stamp Duty Land Tax rates are:
For someone buying a residential property at £450,000, for example, this means that they will now pay £10,000 in SDLT instead of £12,500. The rates and rules remain different for first-time buyers, companies, overseas buyers and people buying a second or subsequent property, but they will benefit from the changes too.
First-time buyers For first-time buyers, the news is even better, as no SDLT is payable where the purchase price is up to £425,000 – previously this was only the case up to £300,000. First-time buyers can also now claim First Time Buyer Relief on all purchases of a main residence up to a maximum purchase price of £625,000 (this is up from £500,000). For example, under the old rules a first-time buyer paying £450,000 for their home would pay £7,500 in SDLT; this is now reduced to £1,250.
Higher rate transactions For individuals buying a second home or buy-to-let property, the new rates are:
A two per cent SDLT surcharge for overseas buyers purchasing residential property in England and Northern Ireland was introduced in 2021. The surcharge applies to non-resident buyers regardless of the type of buyer (e.g. company or individual) subject to a few exceptions. Where applicable, the surcharge is levied in addition to the three per cent buy-to-let/second homes charge mentioned above, the flat 15 per cent SDLT rate on purchases of dwellings worth more than £500,000 by companies acting as ‘envelopes’ and the existing SDLT rates for home buyers. Unfortunately, the Chancellor did not take the opportunity to simplify the SDLT rules and reliefs, and so this remains a very complex area of taxation!
To speak to one of Trethowans’ residential property lawyers, you can call their team on 01722 412512
Politics is not a soap opera. A serious sense of purpose and a united, dedicated application has returned, says Simon Hoare MP
Simon Hoare MP
Older readers may well recall the slightly disconcerting 1986 scene in the TV series Dallas when Pam Ewing wakes up, enters her en suite bathroom and finds her husband Bobby in the shower. The previous year, Bobby had been written out of the series, killed in a car accident. He returned, much to the surprise of viewers, and was met with Pammy declaring she had had a horrible dream. The period of his absence was immediately erased and life carried on as normal. Politics is a serious business. It can’t just erase memories. Decisions made affect the lives of us all every day. Politics is not a soap opera. That said, it has somewhat felt like one over recent months and for that I want to apologise.
A one-act tragedy The government has not looked serious about discharging its important duties. The events of ‘partygate’ and Paterson combined to create a toxic environment in the country and in Parliament that led, as we know, to the fall of Boris Johnson (no returning ‘Bobby in the shower’ moment for him). Over the summer – when the country was looking for answers, reassurance and support – the governmental pause button had been pressed while a new leader was selected. The short-lived Truss government, more one-act tragedy than long running soap opera, needs no further comment. Apart from one: sorry. The principles that underpinned the mini budget were basically the right ones. The UK needs to see sustainable growth. Individuals, rather than the State, know best how to support their families with their own money. Our tax system needs to be competitive in order to attract investment and so on … The principles were true but the preparation and delivery were appalling and the impact on mortgages and confidence made worse by its avoidability. While the markets are now steadier, the UK’s reputation is repairing and the Government emanates an air of seriousness, a sense of purpose and of dedicated application, I am not so naïve as to consider that all is either forgiven or forgotten. The Government has a big job to do and little time to do it in. The appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister and his retention of Jeremy Hunt at the Treasury are important reputational rebuilding foundations. The Cabinet that Rishi has appointed represents all views and opinions across the Conservative party, rather than being solely drawn in the narrow image of the Leader. I firmly believe this will make for better decision making and more robust scrutiny of policy. The mood of the parliamentary party is dramatically improved. Left, right and centre of the party are speaking to each other again – sometimes for the first time in many years. There is a sense of re-purposing, focus and hellbent determination to deliver.
Not just tories I know some people reading this will be irritated and, in some sense, correctly saying ‘the UK is more than just the Conservative party’. They are, of course, right. But my party did win a commanding majority over all other parties in the House of Commons. We are right to recommit to repaying the trust the British people vested in us. Which brings me to a closing thought on the call of some for a General Election. Given all the country has gone through since the New Year, I really do remain to be convinced that the policy delivery vacuum of a drawn-out election campaign is in the interests of our country or our economy. The ship needs to be steadied and the course reaffirmed first. My second argument against a General Election is that we have a representative parliamentary system, not a presidential one. No individual is elected directly as prime minister. As you will know, individuals standing under a Party banner are elected to serve constituencies, and it is the sum of those results which puts a party over the line in order to form a government, that being more than 325 MPs. It is then a matter for the House of Commons to decide whether it has ‘confidence’ in that party. My party has yet to lose a single vote in the Commons. If a confidence vote were held tomorrow, there would be a massive majority in favour of it. The King has asked Rishi Sunak to form a Government. He has done so. He and it commands the confidence of Parliament. Let us not move any further to defining how our democracy works through the prism of ‘personal presidential politics’. The Government has work to do to regain your trust. I will do all I can to help my party do so.
The Gillingham & Shaftesbury Agricultural Society is hiring for a Show Secretary & Events’ Organiser.
The role is to Manage all aspects of The Society especially the smooth organisation and running of its Events, The Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show and Spring Countryside Show. This is alongside the management of the Event Venue, Turnpike Showground in Motcombe. The individual must be innovative, enthusiastic, and approachable. This position consists of Logistics Management, Admin, Sales, Event Management, Coordination, Marketing including digital.
For the full job description and to apply e-mail [email protected] or ring 01747 823955.
Applications close 16th December 2022 with the aim to interview immediately in the New Year.
On the 5th of November this year, Roy Godwin, Assistant Head Gardener at Sculpture by the Lakes started what can only be described as a mammoth and extremely challenging task of walking 100Km of the Sahara Desert in just 5 days!
Roy Godwin pictured with Simon and Monique Gudgeon owners of Sculpture by the Lakes.
In doing so he is raising money and awareness for ‘Friends of PICU’, a charity dedicated to caring for sick and terminally ill children at Southampton Hospital Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. Roy is gratefully receiving donations through a designated ‘Justgiving’ page, and assistance of corporate sponsors Sculpture by the Lakes, Cahill Motor Services, Henryettas Hooks, and Lyons Gate Gardening Services.
Roy Godwin pictured with Kevin Cahill owner of Cahill Motor Services.
With the additional support of local gym Anytime Fitness in Dorchester, Roy has trained hard for this event and is determined to raise as much money as he possibly can for this worthy cause. So far with amazing support coming from the wider community, Roy has managed to raise a fantastic £4,250!
Roy Godwin pictured with Noel Bryson owner of Henryettas Hooks
Roy told us “Friends of PICU and all the staff of Southampton Hospital work incredibly hard 24 hours a day to help sick and terminally ill children. I am so proud of this hospital and the local community which care for our children, and it is my privilege to help in some way. When the life of a child is saved, you haven’t saved one life, but also the lives of parents, family members, friends and loved ones.”
Roy Godwin pictured with Colin Arnold owner at Lyons Gate Gardening Services.
Roy is amazed by the support he has received and extremely grateful to everyone who has sponsored him so far, but of course every penny counts and Roy is hopeful he can raise even more! So now Roy is reaching out to the whole community to help him raise as much as he can. If you would like to read more about Roy’s charity challenge, back story and motivation for this event, or if you would like to kindly sponsor, please visit Roy’s charity link at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/roy-godwin
Roy Godwin pictured with Natasha Williams, Manager at Anytime Fitness Dorchester.
