NEW-look application forms for farmers’ grants under the Countryside Care Scheme had been designed to be quicker and easier to complete but have proved anything but.
The streamlined form had aimed to avoid manual inputting of all data every time an application was made, providing cost savings of £4,000.
A deadline for applications for grants for the 2012-13 scheme was last Friday (May 11).
But some farmers say they have experienced difficulty in filling in the new form.
Mr Gawne admitted: ‘The Manx National Farmers’ Union are very concerned about this. There seems to be a problem with the way the forms were put together. There is confusion between the forms and the guidance and there needs to be more clarity. We are hoping to find a solution for the farmers struggling with their forms.’
He said each form would have to be checked manually to ensure the department had all the data it needed, so that the hoped-for savings would not be made.
Final payments to farmers for the 2011-12 Countryside Care Scheme have been made.
The scheme is DEFA’s main financial support for farmers, covering about 80 per cent of the land in the island, almost 100,000 acres in total.
Meanwhile, the DEFA’s flagship eco-friendly department headquarters is proving its worth.
Heating bills for the Thie Slieau Whallian base of the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture in St John’s, are quarter of typical office of the same size.
The £4.7 million building was completed on time and on budget two years ago.
It innovative construction method, which incorporated high levels of insulation and a woodchip boiler using woodchip from the sustainably managed conifer plantations in the island, has ensured a saving of more than 75 per cent on ‘ordinary’ fuel bills.
Annual heating use is less than 50 per cent of typical offices, which combined with the use of the woodchip boiler, means it costs one quarter as much to heat.
The DEFA Minister said: ‘Heating our buildings is the biggest energy demand we have in the Isle of Man, a bigger figure than electricity or road fuels, so the more we can make use of a fuel we can produce for ourselves from our plantations, the more money stays on the island.’
Peter Longworth, energy initiatives officer, said: ‘In time, it is hoped further buildings will benefit from a locally sourced, price stable fuel that is very good value, as we have seen at St John’s.’