First Minister’s ‘blinkered view’ on Glastir

31/10/2011 @ 02:54

First Minister Carwyn Jones has been accused of being ‘blinkered’ in his inflexible approach to the introduction of the Welsh Government’s new agri-environment scheme, Glastir.

Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, quizzed Mr Jones at the Senedd and asked him to consider the re-introduction of the Tir Mynydd scheme instead following a slow uptake on Glastir.

He said: “I believe the First Minster has become extremely blinkered on this issue, particularly when confidence in the future of agri-environment in Wales has been so dented. When you have farming unions saying that they are fighting against their own government for survival, and individual farmers saying that they would rather farm in Scotland than in Wales, then we have a real problem on our hands.

“Glastir has clearly become a white elephant and this is putting £89m of EU funding at risk. The First Minister’s refusal to accept that, coupled with his rejection of any reintroduction of a successful agri-environment, like Tir Mynydd, just shows how out of touch this Welsh Government is with the farming community in Wales.