Agri-environment payments cannot be made in respect of similar management on the same area of land in the same year. To avoid this, the following arrangements should apply to Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) Scheme and Habitats Scheme (HS) leavers in 2009 who receive approval to continue with similar management on the same area of land under an equivalent Rural Priorities Option.
Regional Proposal Assessment Committee (RPAC) Region | Date of ESA (or HS) expiry (during the periods below) | Start date for Rural Priorities option |
|---|
Ayrshire, Borders, Clyde Valley, Dumfries & Galloway, Forth, Grampian and Tayside. | 1 January to 31 March 2009 | 1 January 2009 |
1 April to 31 December 2009 | 1 January 2010 |
Argyll, Highland, Outer Hebrides and Northern Isles. | 1 January to 30 April 2009 | 1 January 2009 |
1 May to 31 December 2009 | 1 January 2010 |
The above arrangements generally reflect regional differences in start dates for annual management under the ESA scheme (or Habitats Scheme) and the equivalent Rural Priorities options.
There should be no overlap issues with the Countryside Premium Scheme, Rural Stewardship Scheme or Organic Aid Scheme, because the expiry dates for these schemes fall towards the back end of the year and therefore a start date on the following 1 January for Rural Priorities should present no problems.
Please note Case Officers must check during the submit stage that the correct start date (i.e. year) has been entered on the data capture system.