Decision

This Council notes that:
 
·        
Agriculture contributes £190m per year to the Warwickshire
economy with around 4800 people employed across Warwickshire
farms.
·        
Warwickshire farmers and gamekeepers help maintain over 1750 miles
of public rights of way and 6500 Hectares of woodland.
 
This Council believes that:
 
·        
Farmers are the backbone of Britain who work long hours year-round,
in unpredictable weather, growing crops and raising animals so we
can eat.  Farming is essential in
assuring we have food security and integral to the Warwickshire
economy.
·        
Productive farmland must be protected from mass housing /
industrial development and the installation of solar farms whilst
ensuring farmers are more easily able to diversify; with farm
shops, storage and similar on-farm development.
·        
Farming and Gamekeeping apprenticeships should be promoted to
encourage young people into a rural career, keeping industries
going and traditions alive.
·        
Shooting is an established part of the UK’s cultural heritage
and community life, contributes to conservation, combats
loneliness, and provides important social and cultural ties in
rural areas involving all generations within communities.
·        
The shooting and conservation sector is a significant employer
within Warwickshire and contributes to the local economy across
both rural and urban Warwickshire.
 
This Council resolves to:
 
1.    
Engage with Warwickshire schools, hospitals, businesses and other
publicly funded organisations to encourage them to support
Warwickshire farmers, shoots and game dealers by prioritising them
when sourcing produce.
2.    
Support applications from the Council’s agricultural tenants
to permit sustainable shooting to be undertaken, in accordance with
the law, on land leased from the Council
3.    
Ask Officers to consider how shooting and conservation can help
towards achieving the Council’s environmental targets and
schemes and to explore the role of the sector as a means of both
improving opportunities for young people through education and
vocational qualifications and driving sustainable economic
development in rural communities
4.    
Ask Officers to provide information on the impact of deer in Road
Traffic Collisions (RTCs) and to consider whether a Deer Management
Plan would mitigate the number of RTCs across the County
5.    
Write to local MPs requesting that they commit to supporting
British farmers and sustainable shooting conducted according to the
law, and to ask that they raise the issue in parliament and in
their discussions with Government.
6.    
Build on the contribution of farming and shooting, carried out in
accordance with the law, to conservation by exploring its inclusion
in future local nature recovery plans.