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 | | Sunday, 25 November, 2001, 10:27 GMT Mistake sees farmers profit by �324,000  Crofters saw their land wrongly classified The Scottish Executive has admitted paying farmers hundreds of thousands of pounds too much in subsidies because by mistake. Crofters in the Western Isles had their land placed in the wrong category for government grants and received up to five times as much as they were entitled to. An executive spokesman confirmed a total of �324,000 in "extra" subsidies was paid out by the Department of Rural Affairs as a result of the administrative. The Arable Area Payment Scheme was designed to divide up cash fairly among farmers using their land for different purposes.
Areas of "improved" land, which were suitable for growing crops or grazing cattle, entitle the farmer to a �30 grant per hectare, whereas "unimproved" land is worth only �6 per hectare. The executive spokeswoman said areas of land in the Lewis and Harris areas earmarked for "rough grazing" were wrongly assessed as "improved" when farmers submitted their claim forms. She said: "Due to incorrect declarations of land on claim forms, incorrect payment to the value of �342,000 have been made to producers across Scotland. "We hope we can resolve the differences sensibly." | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Scotland stories now:  Links to more Scotland stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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