The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme continues to deliver in its final year of funding projects that meet its themes of Climate, Nature, People and Place. Set up under the Government’s Agricultural Transition Plan in 2021 and extended under the first review of the Environmental Improvement Plan in January 2023, funding to support projects will come to a close at the end of March 2025.
Nationally, the programme has been seen as being hugely successful and the budget for this financial year (2024/25) is the same amount as was originally allocated for the whole three years of FiPL’s intended lifespan when it was first started.
Locally on the Lincolnshire Wolds, the programme has so far supported 42 projects and awarded funding of over £803,000 to support these. This year 12 projects have been allocated funding. These not only reflect the programme’s themes but also support innovation to meet them. These have included:
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Work to desilt and improve biodiversity on a number of ponds including Benniworth Haven
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Continuing to support the Lincolnshire Wolds Farmers Cluster Group
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Supporting the Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese company to introduce new elements to their cheese making process to meet new markets
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Planting a Truffle Orchard
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Small-scale equipment to support the development of regenerative farming
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Developing a project to survey woodlands with a drone to map areas of Ash Dieback as well as identifying areas with trees showing resistance to the disease
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Supporting mink control on the National Landscape’s rivers to reduce predation of Water voles, Kingfishers and other species
There is still some of this year’s budget available for projects that can be delivered by the end of March 2025. Approximately, £190,000 remains for the Lincolnshire Wolds National Landscape’s Local Assessment Panel (LAP) to allocate to projects that can be completed by the 31st March 2025.
In addition to this, in November 2023 Defra added the Historic Building Restoration Grant scheme to be a separate funding through FiPL. With a tight deadline of having applications submitted by the end of May this year, 6 buildings or groups of buildings were approved for funding, totalling just under £1.2 million out of a national budget of £10.5 million.
After a successful Farmers Meeting held at Belchford in November 2023, the LAP is organising another meeting this year. Further details will be included on the LWCS website, on social media and in direct contact who those who have signed up to receive FiPL updates. If you’re interested, do come along and help the LAP to allocate that rest of this year’s FiPL budget.
