§ Lord Stanley of Alderleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What percentage of Merionethshire has no Ordnance Survey maps modern enough for farmers to complete their integrated administration and control system forms, what action they intend to take to alleviate this problem and whether farmers in this area may be allowed to delay submission of their integrated administration and control system forms until the Government make such maps available.
Viscount St. DavidsOrdnance Survey published mapping is available for the whole of the county of Merioneth. Half of Merioneth has been mapped at a scale of 1:2500 and the remainder at 1:10000. The information required by farmers to complete integrated administration and control system forms may be read directly off the 1:2500 maps but where only 1:10000 maps are available or field boundaries have changed in the interim farmers are advised to seek professional help in order to derive the necessary information.
To assist farmers whose land is not mapped to the scale of 1:2500 and who cannot obtain the professional advice in time to meet the 15th May deadline, farmers may submit a smaller scale map with the fields identified individually and give their best estimate of the area of each field in hectares. They must, however submit national grid reference numbers for each field as soon as possible thereafter and, in the case of applications for arable aid payments, a map to the scale of least 1:10000. Estimates of field areas cannot be changed after the 15th May deadline and, as over-estimates could result in financial penalties, farmers have been advised to err on the side of caution.
The 15th May deadline is contained in an EC regulation and the European Commission reaffirmed its position at the Agriculture Council in Luxembourg on 26th–27th April that the date could not be extended.