how has this government scam gone unnoticed?

Question

I live on a farm in Britain which my dad/uncle run it and my grandparents did before them we farm sheep and chickens it is a small family business.
We have received a bill for thousands of pounds from the government in order to get a license to run a business we’ve been running for about 40 years without a license but no they didn't stop there they also gave us with enough paperwork to cause my parents to stop working for 3 days ,this paperwork required detailed maps of the farm but not one map loads of maps and we were to have seven copies of each map. It also required a decommissioning plan and geology map (why?) it also didn’t help the government informed us about all this about a month late. The bill was required by the EU to stop farms polluting they never took into account the fact our farm also has 11 wind turbines producing green energy and this unlike Britain, France are absorbing the fee and other countries are reducing it.
When I go into the supermarket I see more and more foreign foods its almost as if the government wants us (farms) to fail.

I live on a farm in Britain which my dad/uncle run it and my grandparents did before them we farm sheep and chickens it is a small family business.
We have received a bill for thousands of pounds from the government in order to get a license to run a business we’ve been running for about 40 years without a license but no they didn't stop there they also gave us with enough paperwork to cause my parents to stop working for 3 days ,it also didn’t help the government informed us about all this about a month late. The bill was required by the EU to stop farms polluting they never took into account the fact our farm also has 11 wind turbines producing green energy and this unlike Britain, France are absorbing the fee and other countries are reducing it.
In the supermarket I see more and more foreign foods its almost as if the government wants us (farms) to fail.
Added Details: There have been protests and weve spoken to the farmers union but to no effect
(details gone 1000 letter limit)

sorry never had to use add details before so typed it all again with extra bit at bottom

Answer 1

are you sure it's not a scam. I would call the farmer tax line, not the number you got in the mail but a REAL number make sure!

Answer 2

Sorry to hear of your plight and I think you have enough ideas about a response. However, let me point out a couple of things.

Here in the U.S. you need an environmental impact statement to do just about anything on a farm or add to or take away anything from a farm. For example to sell gravel from your place you need a statement with maps and photos and the buyer needs one too!! Of course you get the maps and photos from the government which has every inch of you, your farm and your buyer pre-recorded.

It is interesting to me that your little sheep and chicken farm has nearly one dozen wind turbines. Here in the U.S. private ownership of such is illegal and was made illegal by Congress before the first one was ever imported. On top of that the average U.S. citizen could not afford one wind turbine if they saved every penny they made during their life time. If you had a dozen wind turbines in America you would probably have some clout in Washington, D.C.

Finally, U.S. agriculture is controlled by hardly more than seven families. How is it over there? The environmental card is being played world wide to control agendas which have nothing to do with the love and care of mother nature.

Answer 3

So sorry to hear your plight. Perhaps you could do some research in a law library. There may be some grandfather clause that will exempt you from the licensing, or at least buy you some time to gather the funds. The paperwork is their way of confusing the hell out of you. Unfortunately the "Police Artist" may have a point. It could be a job for a lawyer. And gathering other farmer friends together with the same problem wouldn't hurt. You could all make a date/appointment to speak with an official from your area. But whatever you do...don't discount the "Power of One" you could be that "one" who changes everything.

Answer 4

I really feel sorry for you and your family, but there is little I can recommend that will get you out of this Catch-22 situation. All I can say is welcome to the EU, and the socialist government which has been flexing ist muscles in Britain for the last 40 years. They will use any means at all, including the green revolution (which the Shah of Iran coined about 50 years ago), to take over and redistribute the lands of hard working people.I would recommend that you contact your member of Parliament and give him/her all the info and hope for the best. Secondly, I would suggest that you begin contacting local and national newspapers to blow the whistle on these vultures.
Good luck!

Answer 5

I'm a farmer here in the us in the state of missouri. I don't have an answer. As hard as it is to make a living farming it seems as the goverment just makes it harder by trying to tax every thing possible. If I travel into the next state just 10 miles away they want me to pay taxes on fuel that is in my truck I had already payed taxes on. There was even talk of taxing the water in ponds and lakes used in irrigation. It used to be a family could make a living on a small farm, now it is hard even if you own hundreds of acres. I would imagine like everythig else there is a politician filling his pockets with the money he is taking from the working class.

Answer 6

The scam has not gone unnoticed. The problem is that after Cromwell and his little revolution, things went back to the way they were.
Whenever the rules change, which is every day in parliament, it is your responsibility to comply.
That is why there are CPA's and solicitors.
The rules are so thick and deep, you need them to shovel the paper.
Ask your neighbours if they are in the same quagmire. Jointly hire a team of professionals to deal with it.
You need to follow procedure, file objections and request extensions.
Sorry for your luck, but its the nature of the beast.
We had a scandal in Walkerton, Ontario were seven people died because the government mismanaged offal waste. They got off scott free, and changed the rules. Now the farmers are responsible for waste management.

Answer 7

Well, atleast the governments of the world are consistant. They come up with anything just to get money out of you. However you are running a business. Everyone else has to pay fee's, why shouldn't farmers? I am not against farmers, but they make a profit...you don't grow food to do good for humanity, you do it to make a profit.

In Canada, all the farmers got together and drove their tractors down a busy highway to protest. You should try doing something like that.

Answer 8

Sounds like a bunch of bureaucratic red tape designed to keep the government people employed. I live in the US and that sort of thing happens here all the time - they make it harder and harder for the single family farmers to make ends meet until the only farmers that can make it are the big corporations. Then everyone is asking what happened to the family farms? The answer is that the government wrapped them up so tight in red tape that they suffocated.

Answer 9

Don't know what to say--that's sad. Here in the US, no one could get politicians to do anything for the farmers either, until the politicians and big companies bought up big chunks of farmland. Then there were suddenly all kinds of subsidies and tax breaks. (The number of "farmers" in Congress is amazing.)

A previous poster was on the right track, but you may be able to do better. If you can easily gather a bunch of other farmers together, go ahead, but you can probably get action going straight to the elected representative from your area based on your case alone. He probably has a staff of people to help citizens tied down by unreasonable beuraucratic messes. Sometimes putting this complaint in the office of an elected official can get things cleaned up in your case--they'll get a staffer to help you through the red tape, and if they get enough similar complaints, they may try to actually fix the laws to simplify matters.

Answer 10

You are being evicted, I am a plain talker, and it appears as if someone has your land in mind for their wants. They nudged up to some politician, cigars were smoked, agreements were made, you have been hoodwinked.
Now that we have the facts and the reality has set in, what are you going to do? get a crowd of people to talk at the ones that are stealing the land. yes, it would help if it was on record. careful though, do not get arrested for anything, matter of fact,if you can trust, and i mean really trust, your people then you should not even think of showing your face to a cop.
To get right, you are gonna have to get dirty, really dirty. Shifty, sneaky then be ready to go to London with cameras. Film everything that you are allowed to. Every move, every action and get clock shots.
Your in for a fight kiddo, I wish you safe passage and hope that you persevere over those creatons.

Answer 11

so, everyone has a messed up government, eh? i'm sorry this is happening to you. i am not a farmer, and not a brit. i really don't have any advice to give you. all i can say is my husband is government owned (military) so, i am very familiar with the things that just come up out of nowhere and make absolutely no sense but to cause migraines. good luck to you and your family. keep the word alive so maybe people won't buy so much foreign food, and stick to what the local farmers are providing.