A Freedom of Information request made by Herefordshire for Europe to Herefordshire Council has revealed the how much the European Union funded Herefordshire.

The group say that the European Union will have provided £35 million over the period 2006-2020 in grants through the Regional Fund, the Social Fund and the Rural Development Fund. These grants have gone to a wide variety of investments including strengthening research, technological development and innovation; promoting climate change adaptation; supporting entrepreneurs with start up funding and providing support for rural tourism amongst much else.

A spokesperson for Herefordshire for Europe told the Ross Gazette: “Dwarfing these figures is the £35 million each year paid to Herefordshire farmers in direct income payments from the European Union under the Common Agricultural Policy. On average across Brit as a whole, farmers receive around 60% of their incomes from the EU.

“In total in the period, the European Union will have provided around £243 million to Herefordshire – as well as similar amounts in the previous funding cycles amounting to a remarkable £850 million since the turn of the century.”

Guy Wilkinson, chair of Herefordshire for Europe said: “Our farmers, especially the small and medium sized enterprises, are going to suffer serious reductions in their income from the loss of EU farm support which is not going to be replaced under the government’s announced farming policy from 2020.”

Polly Ernest said that there has been no commitment from the government that the grants from the European Regional and Social Funds will be replaced by public funding.  She said: “In fact, we know from the government’s own figures that in any of the Brexit scenarios, there will be less public expenditure available because the overall economy will suffer.”

Minette Batters, President of the National Farmers Union has said: “We have outlined repeatedly that a no-deal Brexit would be nothing short of catastrophic and could have a devastating impact on the millions of people working in our industry, threatening livelihoods and severely undermining farm businesses”. Guy Wilkinson said: “I note that Bill Wiggin, Member of Parliament for North Herefordshire where farming is an essential part of the economy, has repeatedly voted in favour of a no deal Brexit.”See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.