皇家华人

Your Hertfordshire county NFU update

Josh Redford

Josh Redford

East Sussex and West Sussex County Adviser (maternity cover)

It has been a busy month of member and stakeholder engagement across Hertfordshire.

While it was disappointing to see Chris Hinchliff MP lose the whip from Labour, we continue to work closely with MPs in Hertfordshire on key issues affecting members.

On the issue of IHT, as we look towards Back British Farming Day 2025, now is a good time to reach out to your local MP and encourage them to visit your farm.

If you would like to organise a visit, or have one planned, please contact me at [email protected] so we help with briefing notes and planning.

We had two successful Rural Priority Working Groups at the beginning of July, where three priorities were set for rural teams for the next four months. These include fly tipping, plant machinery and tool theft and hare coursing and poaching.

It has also been good to work with PS David Miller in East Herts on successful fly tipping action, the crushing of a vehicle involved in a farm break in, and the securing of funding for members for CESAR marking technology.

We continue to work on the issue of fly tipping and have secured a date for a round table meeting with key decision makers on Thursday 7 August.

Supported by Daisy Cooper MP and Victoria Collins MP, the meeting will include NFU members, the Environment Agency, councillors, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), and the police.

皇家华人County Management Group meets in early August with a discussion focused on plans for the year ahead.

These plans have a focus on NFU regional board priorities and aim to supplement local branch level activity in the counties.

If you wish to feed into these plans, please do reach out to your local NFU contact, whether that is a branch chair, commodity board representative, or group secretary.

Wishing you a continued safe and successful harvest.

Local news

Farm security help in North Herts and East Herts

Herts Police have secured match funding through the Police and Crime Commissioner to help members mark their machinery with CESAR technology. The triangular CESAR registration plate has become the industry standard identification mark and acts as a significant deterrent against theft. 

Recognised by the NFU Mutual, marking your equipment gives up to a 12.5% discount on insurance policies. 

Please contact Group Secretary Leonie King if you would like to find out more about the match funding for North Herts and East Herts.

Members can also take advantage of free Selecta DNA kits across Hertfordshire, to mark up smaller equipment and tools. 

If you wish to take advantage of one of these free kits, please contact the rural police team ROST who will organise a visit to help apply the kit on your farm.
 

Find out the NFU is tackling rural crime

Surveys and questionnaires

Hertfordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy goes live

The public consultation for the draft Hertfordshire LNRS (Local Nature Recovery Strategy) runs until Monday 8 September.

These strategies highlight key habitats and species that need creating or enhancing to improve nature鈥檚 recovery at a local level. Maps show where it is thought the greatest opportunities exist for enhancing or creating new habitats.  

While production of a strategy is mandatory, the strategies stand alone with no associated delivery mechanisms or funding and there is no obligation on landowners to deliver any of the suggested enhancements. 

Many objectives could be met through ELMs funding and the documents will be used for reference by planning authorities, so this may have both positive and negative implications for landowners.

If you have any questions about the detail of the strategy, please contact Regional Environment Adviser Rob Wise: [email protected] or 07880 385684.

Hertfordshire County Council is holding four 90-minute webinars to talk through the strategy, demo the map tool and to take questions. The dates are:

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You can respond to the consultation below. Make sure you describe yourself as a farmer/landowner as this generates extra questions for that community.

You cannot save your response and return to the survey later, so aim to answer it in one go, or keep the survey tab open if you need to leave it part way through.

Start date

17 July 2025 at 12:00am

End date

15 September 2025 at 11:45am

Local news

Westminster visit with Tom Bradshaw and Labour MPs

皇家华人President hosted a roundtable meeting with Chris Hinchliff MP and Kevin Bonavia MP as part of our continued work on the family farm tax. 

County Chair Robert Law and council representative Andrew Watts also attended, with support from County Adviser Josh Redford and External Affairs Manager Neeve McGinty.

This level of engagement brought together two key Hertfordshire Labour MPs and allowed them to ask questions directly to Tom Bradshaw following multiple meetings with NFU members in their constituencies.