Grants

Responsible hedge management is not always cheap, but grant aid for hedge laying and hedge planting is readily available in Somerset.

Somerset Landscape Schemes (SLS)

This scheme is run by Somerset County Council and has no fixed application period. Hedge planting, stone walling and hedge laying are all eligible. It offers grants of 30- 50% of costs with a maximum grant of £500 per site. Grants are aimed at conserving and restoring features of the Somerset landscape and to create new features and habitats. Clear public benefits must be shown. An application must be made prior to work commencing. On completion you should notify the County Council, so the work can be inspected.
 
A new addition (October 2002) to the SLS is the Hedgerow Tree Grant. This new grant is designed to encourage landowners and managers to leave young saplings to grow up within the hedge by selecting and tagging suitable trees before the hedge trimmer comes by. Grant aid of £5 per tree is available, payable in two instalments, with a minimum of 20 trees tagged.
 
Tree tags are not supplied as part of the Hedgerow Tree Grant, freeing up more grant aid per tree for landowners and managers. This obviously places the onus on the applicant to find the best means of tagging their saplings. The SHG, in conjunction with Somerset County Council, have produced guidance on hedgerow tree tagging and aftercare to support this Scheme. 
 
For more information about the SLS please contact Phil Stone in the County Council’s Countryside Group on Tel. 01823 355617,
or follow the web link to the Somerset Landscape Scheme site, where further information and application forms are available.

Exmoor National Park Authority

The Somerset Landscape Scheme has now been extended to cover Exmoor National Park. Staff from the Authority liaise with the County Council on applications from within the Park. If you live within the Exmoor National Park boundary, please contact Bea Davis for further information, Tel: 01398 322288. E-mail: bdavis@exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk

The National Park also runs its own Conservation Grant Scheme. The aim is to enhance the landscape and natural environment of Exmoor, by conserving characteristic features and improving biodiversity.
 
Grants of up to 80% are available for a range of work, including

• Low intensity management of hedges for dormice, whitebeam and other wildlife
• Nest box schemes to encourage species such as dormice and bats
• Fencing areas of unimproved grassland, heathland or wetland, to enable or reinstate grazing
• Fencing of woodland to exclude stock
• Creation of new pollards and management of existing veteran trees
• Rhododendron and Japanese Knotweed control (knotweed control is currently 100% grant aided)

For further information on this grant scheme, please contact Bea Davis, Tel: 01398 322288. E-mail: bdavis@exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk

Environmental Stewardship (ES)

In 2005, the new agri-environment scheme Environmental Stewardship was introduced, comprising the Entry Level Scheme (ELS) and the Higher Level Scheme (HLS). Details of the schemes are available online at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes/es/default.htm

Environmental Stewardship is a new agri-environment scheme which provides funding to farmers and other land managers in England who deliver effective environmental management on their land. The scheme is intended to build on the recognised success of the Environmental Sensitive Areas scheme and the countryside Stewardship Scheme. Its primary objectives are to:

Conserve wildlife (biodiversity)
Maintain and enhance landscape quality and character
Protect the historic environment and natural resources
Promote public access and understanding of the countryside
Natural resource protection

Within the primary objectives it also has the secondary objectives of:

Genetic conservation
Flood management

Environmental stewardship has three elements:

Entry Level Stewardship (ELS)
- Open to all farmers and landowners.
- Simple and effective land management.
Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS)
- Organic strand of ELS.
- Open to all farmers not receiving Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) aid.
Higher Level Stewardship (HLS)
- Targeted environmental management.
- Capital work plans.

ELS and OELS go beyond what will be required under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) cross compliance conditions. Entering into an Environmental Stewardship agreement will not remove any cross compliance obligations.

Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS)

CSS is now closed and has been superceeded by the Higher Level scheme under Environmental Stewardship starting in March 2005. See the DEFRA website for more details.
 
For further information Tel. 0117 959 1000

Environmentally Sensitive Area Scheme (ESA)

ESA schemes are now closed and will be superceeded by the Higher Level scheme under Environmental Stewardship starting in 2005. See the DEFRA website for more details. 

For further information Tel. 0117 959 1000

English Nature

Grants are available from English Nature for:- 

• New projects enabling the safeguarding, management and enhancement of sites and species of nature conservation importance and their enjoyment by the public;
• Projects enabling local communities to participate more fully in conservation activities;
• Proposals designed to encourage the development of management for wildlife within natural areas of the countryside;
• Innovative projects demonstrating new initiatives which are likely to have a wider relevance and further the practice of nature conservation;
• Imaginative proposals which implement the concept of integrating nature conservation with other interests and potentially competing activities.

Grants for wildlife projects must contribute to Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs).