In one of the most outspoken criticisms ever of Government countryside policies, the Tenant Farmers’ Association (TFA) today attacked Natural England’s future vision for areas like the Yorkshire Dales as a “fairy tale.”

Since its creation by this Government, Natural England has been struggling to come up with a plan which would combine the sometimes conflicting needs of preserving the natural landscape of the uplands with food production.

It recently presented what it called a vision for the year 2060, which suggested amongst other things a drastic reduction in sheep and cattle grazing –by as much as 70% in some areas, according to the TFA. But this policy clashes with new demands for increased British food production as food shortages sweep the world and are expected to get worse as the population grows – Britain alone is forecast to have an extra 10 million people by 2050, mainly due to immigration.

The TFA have studied the 2060 vision proposals and today (November 12) came out with its withering criticism, describing the plans as a fairy tale.

Said FA Uplands spokesman Mike Keeble: “The authors of this report have clearly taken their inspiration more from Lewis Carroll than from the experiences of those who live and work in our upland communities. It is long on aspiration and short on the practicalities involved in being an active land manager in some of the harshest yet paradoxically most beautiful environments in our country.

“I accept that the document is visionary but it takes little account of some of the major issues being faced in the uplands and how we get from where we are now to where Natural England thinks it wants us to be.

“Current Natural England policies are doing more to hinder than help this process. The cornerstone of our upland communities is ruminant livestock production and this is being undermined and eroded by ill thought out schemes which on the one hand do not understand the complexities involved in upland management, including the centuries old principle of common grazing rights and yet on the other use simplistic policy tools that promote de-stocking and as a consequence the significant encroachment of bracken.”

Hill farmers have long felt aggrieved at New Labour policies, which seem to show more concern for the environment than the economic lives of small upland communities, and feel particularly bitter that politicians have overlooked the fact that was their industry which created present-day landscapes like the Yorkshire Dales and other national parks in the first place.