AFTER more than a year of waiting and reams of red tape and paperwork, a Williton couple has been left pondering on a princely pay-out from Defra's under-fire Rural Payment Agency - 73p. However, Edwin and Teleri Sincock, of Bridge Street, will have to wait just a little longer for their windfall, as the agency is insisting on paying the money directly into their bank account. Mr Sincock told the Free Press: "We haven't decided what to spend the money on yet - although we've spent more than that on postage to apply for the payment in the first place." The couple were encouraged to apply for payment from the agency for 3.37 acres of land they own at Woolston Moor. As well as having to contend with a 98-page introduction booklet, the pair were then confronted with a host of forms to fill out, many of which were sent in duplicate to different members of the family. "We had documents sent to me, my wife and my daughter, all with different spellings of our names. "There was so much paperwork to do, now here we are with 73p and we're left wondering why we bothered. "Surely someone could have told us at the start it would cost more to apply than the payment we would receive at the end of it? "It grieves me that we pay so much tax and yet they can waste so much of our money doing this," Mr Sincock said. Under the revamped single farm payment scheme, which was introduced to replace the Common Agricultural Policy, anyone with a plot of land of more than 0.3 hectares can apply for a grant. The Sincock's plot of almost 1.4 hectares amply qualifies under the criteria which states that anyone owning a patch of grass above the minimum acreage can receive cash even if they do absolutely nothing with the land. Opposition politicians have estimated the minimum payment under the scheme to be 67p, which means the Sincocks have not done quite as badly as they might have under the scheme. A spokesman for the Rural Payments Agency refused to comment on the Sincocks' specific case and said it was the choice of each individual applicant to decide whether or not to pursue a claim. He said: "We don't comment on specific cases but what I can say is that people making small claims can largely expect to receive a small payment." Photo: Steve Guscott.
