The Chairman of Sherborne CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England), Air Marshal Sir Christopher Coville, has expressed serious concern at the threats to farming in the local area and across much of Dorset. Following a meeting of the Sherborne CPRE Committee, Sir Chris summarised their unanimous view: “As a charity concerned with the landscape, we take a considerable interest in the wellbeing or otherwise of local farming; to a very large extent, our farmers are the custodians of our beautiful countryside.

Indeed, excluding our wooded land, almost all of the landscape in this area is farmed commercially. We are firmly of the opinion that farmers face major uncertainties as the support mechanisms provided over the last 50 years are dismantled, and the schemes which replace them are unsuitable for the majority, especially those with small acreage. The government’s criterion of “public funds for public goods” may read well superficially, but it seems to exclude food production from its definition of “public good”.

Sir Chris added: “South of Sherborne the Blackmore Vale is a beautiful part of Dorset, but it consists largely of relatively small grassland farms on low-lying land – most of which are run by individual families. The scope for delivering public goods other than food – in the form of milk, beef, and in some places arable crops – is limited by local conditions. Sherborne CPRE recognises that climate change, the consequences of Brexit, and altered customer preferences are facts of life for farmers, requiring change. However, we are not convinced that the government has a strategy for moving the industry on in a way that will safeguard the landscape and offer farmers reasonable commercial security”.

He concluded: “Critics may say that we know what we don’t want, but don’t know what we do want. I want to make clear that whilst Sherborne CPRE fears that in the long term dereliction of some farmland could occur, we would nevertheless support measures aimed at enabling farmers to diversify, providing land is optimised with food provision as a priority. However, we are far from being convinced that the structures are currently in place to enable them to do so, and this is a clear message we are getting from farmers themselves. One lesson we must surely have learned from the pandemic is the importance of national resilience, including food supplies, to ensure we can withstand whatever shocks lie ahead. We increase our dependence on others to feed the nation at our peril”.