it seems only five minutes since Keith Leddington Hill from Laurence Gould called me to say that the Intervention Board was to be renamed the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). Shortly afterwards, he advised that the whole shebang was going to relocate from Reading to Northallerton.

Great news, I thought, having the RPA just up the road - until I learned that none of the Reading team was moving up with them, and that all of the Yorkshire team would be new, with a great deal to learn and understand about the history of existing producer organisations (POs). Oh well - that’s the sort of challenge we Tykes face up to every day.

But we didn’t reckon on Margaret Beckett being made the responsible minister and deciding that the Single Payments Scheme should be administered by the most complex of available options. And what a dog’s breakfast that turned out to be.

Then came a visitation to the RPA by European auditors for the Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (FVS). Whilst the Northallerton team had made a sterling effort to get up to speed with regulations, it seems this was not good enough. The RPA got something of a roasting - I think a substantial fine was imposed too, all of which unsettled those in key areas of responsibility at Northallerton.

The natural response was for the local RPA to go right back to basics and review all POs, ensuring they were indeed eligible for support and were complying with the copious regulations as interpreted from a Brussels standpoint.

This intense scrutiny seems to have taken the best part of a year or more, and has meant a considerable increase in workload for both the RPA and POs. Whilst a number of organisations have been found wanting in terms of deeper scrutiny, it is gratifying to note that the vast majority have been operating within the rules.

Given the importance of the FVS and the impact it has had in many areas of horticulture, it is vital that the scheme continues and that POs can continue to build on concentration and co-operation, plus develop systems and procedures in such a way as to ensure both customers and consumers are fully satisfied in the long term. The 2006 reviews certainly prompted all POs to scrutinise their affairs thoroughly and to bring their practices tightly into the letter of the law - all positive stuff.

Whilst there is scant evidence that Europeans didn’t envisage that UK growers would qualify for the scheme, reading between the lines, this may actually have been the case. It seems perhaps that our continental brothers thought these schemes would help bring together a few peasants in southern Europe who were selling tomatoes from individual barrows, and that it would be a good idea if a means could be found for providing them with a much bigger barrow! Forgive the caricature, but it illustrates my point.

Joking aside, the implications are serious. If Brussels doesn’t really want UK POs to survive and prosper, then the RPA and its POs need to stand together and resist. And we need skilled and stalwart civil servants to fight our corner effectively - as they have in recent months.

So why on earth is minister David Miliband agreeing to move the RPA to Newcastle - leaving most, if not all, of the experienced and battle-hardened staff in Northallerton? Think again, minister.

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