Hilary Benn

THE NEWLY appointed environment and food secretary Hilary Benn will make a gesture of conciliation to farmers and landowners yesterday (July 10) as he cut a specially baked birthday cake to mark the 100th anniversary of the Country Land and Business Association.

In the past ten years, New Labour and the CLA have been perceived as arch-enemies, with the landowners conducting highly critical campaigns against Government confusion over disasters like the foot and mouth debacle, the failures of the Rural Payments Agency and the ban on fox hunting.

The cake-cutting ceremony, which is being seen as an attempt by both sides to promote more productive relations, was being held at the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate - a fitting local because the CLA was founded 19 miles away in York.

CLA deputy president, Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher and Mr Benn will sample the cake together. Two feet tall, it has been specially prepared for the occasion by Thirsk-based specialist cake makers, 4 Afters.

"I am pleased that Mr Benn is demonstrating his commitment to agriculture and the rural economy by visiting the show and I am keen to impress upon him the need to sort out the mess at the Rural Payments Agency," said Henry Aubrey-Fletcher

"The shambles at the agency devastated more than the lives of Yorkshire farmers. It resulted in Brussels withholding up to £350 million of its payments, which left a large hole in the budget Mr Benn inherited - including a £15 million cut in the allocation for flood defences. Following the wettest June since records began, it is the people of Yorkshire who are paying the price for these cuts."

He added: "CLA Yorkshire's 3500 members find it astounding that DEFRA is not prepared to spend adequate money on the flood defences that Yorkshire needs but is able to find the money for a coastal access corridor for which there is no apparent public demand.

"We feel that any available funding would be better spent on the local areas that people have already identified themselves through the publicly consulted Rights of Way Improvement Plans."

Founded in Yorkshire in 1907, over the past century the CLA has grown from a small regional lobbying group into one of the country's most active and influential rural economy campaigners, representing 38,000 members involved in more than 250 different types of businesses.