| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
3.2 pm
Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York): I am delighted to speak in this Queen's Speech debate on the environment, transport and the countryside. I declare an interest in that, being married to an airline executive and a past Member
of the European Parliament, I can say with some confidence that my husband and I are both well travelled. I am also a member of the Royal Automobile Club's public policy committee, but I am not speaking on its behalf this afternoon.
If I were to relate my constituency of the Vale of York to the Government's programme in the Queen's Speech, we would come out of it extremely badly. The Vale of York is deeply rural. To Americans who wonder which part of the country I represent, I always say that it is James Herriot countryside. I represent parts of the outskirts of York--New Earswick, Poppleton, Rawcliffe, Clifton Without, Clifton Moor, Haxby, Wigginton, Skelton, Shipton by Bellingborough--and the market towns of Bedale, Boroughbridge, Easingwold and Thirsk, but the geographical centre is Helperby. A deeply rural farming constituency, it has been deeply damaged by a combination of the fuel escalator and the vehicle excise duty. They have damaged all those working in farming, all who consume farm produce and all who rely on supplies from market town stalls or village shops which, with the resulting extra delivery costs, have been clobbered by a double whammy.
My farmers took great comfort from the Labour Government's promise that the ban on beef on the bone would be lifted, as would the ban on our beef exports to Europe. The two go hand in glove and until the ban on beef on the bone is lifted, countries such as France and Germany, the United States, South Africa, or any other Commonwealth country will not be minded to take our beef. We need to convince the scientific officers of Scotland and Wales to have the same confidence in the safety of British beef as our English scientific officer has.
About 30 per cent. of pig production takes place in the county of Yorkshire, and probably 30 per cent. of that is within the Vale of York. I have never before experienced the depth of crisis that exists in the pig farming industry today. It has been particularly clobbered by the uncompetitive conditions which--I accept--the previous Government imposed on it, with the highest animal welfare conditions in the western world, and a ban on sow tethers and stalls imposed seven years before it was imposed on the rest of the EU. The industry is also being damaged by the high pound and cheap imports, which are undercutting it.
Mr. Gray:
My hon. Friend has one third of the nation's pig production in Yorkshire and I probably have one third of the rest of it in Wiltshire; like hers, my farmers are suffering terribly. Is she aware that it costs about £7 more to produce each pig than is achieved at the abattoir, that the industry is currently losing £2 million a week, and that at that rate, by Christmas, the pig industry will be on its knees?
Miss McIntosh:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing that figure to the Government's attention. Given the little comfort in the Queen's speech for the farming community, I hope that when the Minister replies he will take this opportunity to give some shred of comfort to farmers in the Vale of York.
Mr. Letwin:
Does my hon. Friend agree that if the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has been listening to the debates of the past few weeks in the old Session, he will be aware that the offal disposal costs,
Miss McIntosh:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that valid contribution to the debate. I endorse what he says by going a stage further. It was brought to my attention by the National Farmers Union whose president, Ben Gill, is a constituent of mine, that the cost of meat inspection in the United States is met by the federal Government, to the tune of $800 million each year. That makes our farmers less competitive with those of north America. I hope that the Government will go the further mile and reimburse our farmers for those costs.
Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome):
Does the hon. Lady recognise that competition with the United States is all one way, in that the Americas and almost all the Commonwealth countries refuse to accept British beef imports? Does she agree that it is time we tackled the Commonwealth beef ban as well as the European beef ban?
Miss McIntosh:
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for drawing attention to a point that I have just made. I am sorry if I did not make it sufficiently clearly. I did say that not just France and Germany, but the United States, South Africa and a host of Commonwealth countries have failed to lift the ban. I linked that with my plea to the Government to lift the ban on beef on the bone.
Not only is there the effect of the high pound, cheap imports and higher animal welfare conditions in Britain, which acutely affect British pig farmers, there is also the matter of Milk Marque. I have a number of dairy farmers in the Vale of York and they are particularly aggrieved that, at a time when Milk Marque has made a major investment in the Vale of York with its new plant at Dalton industrial estate, they are facing a break-up and a three-way split.
The question that I want to leave with the Government this afternoon concerns the completely different way in which milk and sugar are treated. British Sugar and Tate & Lyle effectively have a duopoly on sugar production and processing in Britain, one looking after home produce and the other looking after imported produce. I cannot understand why Milk Marque is not able to compete in a similar way within the milk market.
I declare an interest in Denmark--I am half-Danish, and I follow matters in Denmark with interest. In Denmark and Holland, the equivalents of Milk Marque are allowed to produce and process up to 70 per cent. of milk production--in countries which are directly competing with our farmers. I have yet to be convinced--I can put my farmers' minds at rest--that Milk Marque should be broken up in this way.
I wish to refer to the Bill on access to the countryside. The impact of such a Bill and the extra responsibilitieson rural communities will be difficult to evaluate.
The proposal will introduce, effectively--in the Government's words--the right to roam. I believe that that is a misguided policy, which underlines the Government's ignorance of how the countryside works and of the responsibilities of those who farm and work the countryside--responsibilities which they must meet without help from the Government, or in future from the European Union.
A constituent who lives in north Yorkshire came to see me on Friday of last week. She and her husband are farmers, and of their 13 fields, 11 have footpaths. There is now a dispute over a new footpath which was not in the original plan and which is now a bone of contention between my constituent, a host of neighbours and North Yorkshire county council. This matter has upset my constituent and her neighbours, one of whom is an older lady who lives alone in an isolated part of north Yorkshire. The path would go straight past her front window. One can imagine that, on a dark winter's evening, seeing strange faces at her window would not be good for her constitution.
My constituent's husband recently received a delivery of wood for 23 stiles. He has been told--before the Bill is introduced--that he must put up those stiles single-handedly. With all the problems that the farming community in the Vale of York faces, I do not understand how farmers are expected to have the time or the resources to put in stiles. Their responsibilities will be added to if the right to roam and the access to the countryside Bill are adopted. The Bill and the right to roam will be intrusive and a threat to security. They will damage the environment, and the cost to the countryside and to the farming community will be great.
I am delighted to see that the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has resumed his place in the Chamber, and I hope that he can help me with this matter. The right to roam could lead to more footpaths, and to more people roaming around the beautiful countryside of the Vale of York. What would happen if someone was to have an accident on the land of one of my constituents? Would my constituent have to take out compulsory insurance, or are the Government proposing to take responsibility?
I wish to refer to transport, and particularly to how road charging will impact on those wishing to enter cities. I have had discussions with a number of interested parties, and there seem to be many insurmountable problems as to how the charges will be imposed and policed. Are the Government assuming that there will be a second tier of traffic wardens to monitor parking charges within towns? Are the Government suggesting that there should be a new tier of bureaucrats to see whether people have paid to park in the work place or at home?
Like other Opposition Members, I wish to make a modest plea on behalf of two villages--Spofforth and Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe--which more than qualify for a bypass. The Spofforth parish council--with my support--made great representations to North Yorkshire county council. At the moment, there are complicated criteria on security and safety, and--dare I mention it--the unwritten law on the number of deaths there must be each year before a bypass can be built. I hope that the Government will look favourably on stretching the bypass programme where appropriate, and that they will look at making the criteria a little more user-friendly.
I wish to make a plea for upgrading the A1 from Dishforth to north of Scotch Corner to motorway status. The project was in the roads programme and, I regret to say, was dropped just after the election. I visited the village of Rainton, and met many villagers at the invitation of the parish council. There is a particularly dangerous spur road off the A1 which goes to the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry). Many of the people in Rainton use doctors and other facilities in Ripon, and depend on emergency services coming from Ripon in the event of an accident.
There have been two fatal accidents in the past six months. However, rather than the road being widened--or a bridge being built over it--it was closed to lay down some red markings. There are no lights yet, and the fatality record proves that we need to revisit the subject of the improvement and upgrading of the A1.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |