Decision details

To serve a Notice to Quit on the current grazier

The Commons and the other fields are currently under a Higher-Level

Stewardship agreement and it is expected that this will become an

Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) agreement as these

schemes are rolled out over the next few years.

The current grazing contract expired in April 2020, but was extended for one

further year due to COVID, allowing the Council to review the current grazing

practice.

The current grazing regime needs to be optimised and a more conservation

orientated one introduced, giving the council the opportunity to focus the cattle

into specific areas and at a specific time and not during the Spring and

Summer months. This will allow the Flora throughout the site to grow as it

should and therefore improve the quality of the limestone grassland and the

reason for its designation as a “Site of Special and Scientific Interest” (SSSI).

The grazing regime needs to be more focused, timed correctly and

communication between the grazier and ranger is key to the success of the

new regime. A new tender is to be advertised to reflect this, but the current

grazier needs to be put on notice in the event that a new grazier wins the

contract. Although the current grazier will be invited to tender for the new

grazing contract but under the new proposed regime.

These changes reflects the movement away from the Higher level

Stewardship (HLS) to the Environmental Land Management Scheme and a

whole site review in terms of site and land management optimising

conservation and new modern technologies.

Remain with the current regime. This does not optimise the benefits that can

be achieved by using modern technologies and does not exclude grazing on

the SSSI part of the hill, during the ideal and expected time of year on similar

sites.

Positive and in support

FOLK