On a routine visit to see a new client 12 months ago I was asked to tidy up their ever increasing pile of paper work from the RPA. Much was able to be filed in the bin but I came across a letter from nearly a month earlier with the results of a remote sensing findings, where the RPA had re-mapped some fields from their satellites in the sky.

The findings were not easy reading, particularly the penalty. This had been back dated for the previous 10 years and now totalled at £5,000! As I dug further into the pile I found further letters requesting the money and also a letter threatening court action. On a closer inspection of the land, the penalty seemed overly harsh by the RPA and it seemed that this farming business was being made an example of. We followed the complaints procedure to challenge the penalty. The first port of call was to halt the threat of court action to give us some breathing space. We then proceeded up a further three levels of complaints with the RPA system with no luck or backing down.

This left us with no option but to request the hearing of the case in front of an Independent Agricultural Appeals Panel. The client and I went to a government office in Bristol and were able to put our case across to the panel that consisted of a retired army barrister, a tenant farmer from Devon and an agricultural advisor. We also sat across the table from a representative from the RPA who put their side across. The atmosphere was serious but everyone was put at ease in a professional manner. Our case was heard and recorded correctly. We had the advantage of being on the attacking side compared to the RPA who were only able to defend their original opinion.

The case was written up by the chairman and will now be presented to the Minister for Agriculture. A result will arrive in two months’ time. Apparently he is tied up with dealing with a referendum at the moment!

If in doubt, get a second opinion and contact Will at willhyde@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office today.