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Elin Jones reflects on four years as Wales’ Rural Affairs Minister

WALESONLINE
10 Feb 2011 by Matt Withers, Western Mail
As Elin Jones comes to the end of a four-year term as Rural Affairs Minister, there has been more to her time in office than just badgers, she insists to Senedd Correspondent Matt Withers

ELIN JONES joined the Assembly Government’s cabinet in 2007 as one of the first Plaid Cymru ministers ever to take ministerial office.

Her appointment was broadly welcomed by relevant interest groups – AM for Ceredigion, from sturdy rural stock, seen as being on top of the relevant issues.

Four years on and, as with all but one of those initial Plaid ministers, she remains in the same position.

The difference now is that she is far better known – predominantly for being the minister responsible for making one of the most controversial and contentious issues of this coalition Government’s term – that to initiate a mass cull of Wales’ badger population in a bid to tackle the escalation of TB among cattle.

The decision angered wildlife groups with the necessity of it questioned by the likes of the RSPCA.

The Court of Appeal, embarrassingly for the Assembly Government, threw out the initial bid. Now Ms Jones is pushing ahead with a project in north Pembroke- shire. She remains unrepentant.

“I’ve placed it as one of my top priorities in coming into government, the need to eradicate TB as a disease in animals in Wales,” she says in her Assembly office. “Over the past 10 or so years the disease had been escalating at a phenomenal rate and it had resulted in us paying around £100m out in compensation.

“The escalation of the disease was dramatic and all political parties over a number of years in this Assembly have been saying that we needed to tackle this disease because it couldn’t be allowed to continue to escalate.

“That programme that we put in place, and the investment that we put into that programme – around £27m of new investment into TB eradication – has primarily related to cattle controls.

“Annual testing of all cattle in Wales, the pre-movement testing of cattle, removing diseased cattle quicker off farm, ensuring that cattle were tested on time on farm – a great deal of effort has gone into that.

“Obviously that hasn’t been what’s hit the headlines. What’s hit the headlines has been the decision I took to accept that, in order to fully eradicate a disease from any area in Wales where the disease was endemic, then you needed to remove the disease from both the wildlife population that were carriers, and the cattle population, as we were doing. So I put legislation in place that would allow us to undertake a cull of badgers in areas where the disease was endemic and badgers were carriers of TB.

“That, ultimately, was quashed by the Court of Appeal and I’ve then needed to consider that judgement and some of the technicalities around the content of that judgement.

“The judgement didn’t say that no minister should consider a cull of badgers as part of a TB eradication. In fact, it provided advice on some of the parameters and that’s why I took the decision then to place an order, a draft order, which would look at a cull of badgers only in north Pembrokeshire, a piece of legislation specifically related to north Pembrokeshire.

“And that’s what’s been consulted on over the last three months and I’m due to consider the outcome of that consultation in the next few weeks before taking a final decision on that order.”

In the past couple of weeks Ms Jones has been accused of pre-empting any decision amid suggestions that the Assembly Government had already decided where traps were to be laid, although the Rural Affairs Minister insists this is not the case.

“There’s been no practical work done in north Pembrokeshire or anywhere, on any badger cull,” she says.

“That wouldn’t be allowed at this point. I think possibly that in north Pembrokeshire some people have reacted to the fact that we’ve been carrying on the work with vets, private vets, in that area to give advice to farmers on biosecurity measures, and those biosecurity measures do relate to the relationship of cattle and badgers on that farm and how that can be managed better in order to protect the cattle from transition of disease from badgers.

“I understood, when I took the initial decision on this, that some people would find that very difficult to understand, because it involved the culling of animals. The culling of cattle happens daily in order to eradicate TB. The culling of wildlife has not been allowed to happen, and that’s why I took the decision to look specifically in those areas where the disease is endemic and we’ve proved that the same strain of TB exists in the wildlife population as the cattle population, then the removal of infection can only be done if you remove it from every source.”

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Badgers are not the only issue in Ms Jones’ in-tray. She has been vocal in recent weeks in her defence of the Common Agricultural Policy’s budget. The EU scheme, which provides funding for farmers, brings millions into Wales’ rural economy.

The UK Government, however – which broadly sees the CAP as a sop to the French anyway – sees it as an area ripe for trimming in the EU’s budget. Ms Jones, like her counterparts in the other devolved nations, disagrees. “I think that the UK Government policy position on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy is to see a very substantial cut in the Common Agricultural Policy budget and to move away from the direct payment to farmers to greater dependence on agri- environmental measures,” she says.

“Now, the value of that direct payment in Wales is currently around £280m a year. That goes to support farming families, farm businesses in the main in Wales, and goes to support the wider rural economy, because those farms are paying for machinery and all kinds of components for their businesses locally in the rural economy.

“So it’s hugely important to Welsh farmers. I think that the Common Agricultural Policy and ensuring a payment to Welsh farmers is probably more important than it’s been for a long time.”

The other key policy which has seen Ms Jones questioned in recent weeks has been where she stands on the selling off of woodland. The UK Government, in what some have already dramatically described as David Cameron’s “poll tax moment”, is openly looking to sell off much of England’s publicly-owned woodland to private investors. Opposition AMs have viewed Ms Jones’ own rhetoric as “wishy-washy”.

While she has ruled out “selling off” Welsh woodland, they say, she refers obliquely to “transferring to the private sector”.

“No, I’ve talked of not selling off,” she says. “There is no major plan to sell off the Welsh woodland. The public estate is 6% of the woodland in Wales, that’s 125,000 hectares. And it’s an asset for the Welsh public, owned by Welsh ministers.

“I want the Welsh forest estate, the publicly-owned estate, to work harder for the people of Wales. And that means provide better public access. Even though there’s been great strides made over the last 10 years in improving public access to the woodland, sometimes the paths and the mountain bike facilities need investing in.

“A lot of work has been done on that, and we need to carry on that work, but also provide a better environmental return. I’ve asked the Forestry Commission to look specifically at the sites that they have that could be used for hydro-electric power generation. That would be a great contributor to our renewable energy targets, but also provide a financial return to the Welsh forest estate. And look at the economic strengthening of the timber product itself. We need to ensure that our timber product can meet a variety of end uses, and we need to look in particular at the sustainable construction potential for timber. And all of that is in the context of our forest being a huge success in terms of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.”

This may well entail parts of Welsh woodland moving into private hands, with other, more suitable pieces of woodland elsewhere being purchased by the Assembly Government to replace it, she says.

“In some cases, it may well be that particular parts of that forest estate may be better outside the public forest estate, but we will buy new land, whether for new planting or for existing forestry, that are better suited to meeting some of those objectives – economic, environmental and public access.

“So I’ve made it clear that the Welsh forest is not for sale in any wholesale way, but also that there would be no reduction in the size of that forest. So if there are bits here and there over the next few years that may be sold, it would only be because there may be better bits to be brought into the forest.”

And would these pieces sold off always be replaced with an area of equal size?

“Of an equal size, and a better match to what we want to use the woodland for,” says Ms Jones. “The Welsh forest estate reached a peak in 1980, and has been in decline since. There has been selling of Welsh public woodland in that time. I want to bring a halt to the decrease in the size of the estate, but I want to make sure that the woodland we have is best matched to the aspirations that we have. I think it’s a huge national asset and we need to make sure that that land is not stagnant, that it is put to the best use in terms of amenity, in terms of environmental return and in terms of financial return.”

There remains a question of geography. What if a piece of woodland is sold off in Powys, only for the Assembly Government to bring more woodland in Ceredigion into public ownership? Would that placate local people perhaps losing access to local forestry?

“I think that, for any sale that may potentially happen, then the criteria that I’ve set out would clearly be the criteria that the Forestry Commission would need to adhere to, and if any of that woodland is important in terms of its public amenity to local communities, in terms of its environmental return or economic return to the wider society, then it wouldn’t be sold,” says Ms Jones.

“But we have to remember that, in having 6% of the land area of Wales, not all of that woodland is currently accessible. I’m also committed to making sure that we have a better mix of woodland in our forest estate.

“I guess that the real interest on this policy is in the context of the policy in England, and I won’t make comment on that policy, only to say that there is no programme of sale for the Welsh woodland. If certain bits at any time are considered by the Forestry Commission to be… there’s a certain piece of land they’d prefer to the one that they’ve got, then we’d consider that on its merit on a case-by-case basis.

“But we are only talking about small-scale marginal changes, we’re not talking wholesale sale of the Welsh woodland.”

I understood, when I took the decision, some people would find it very difficult to understand

I want to make sure the woodland we have is best matched to the aspirations we have.

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