Despite making an offer to settle remaining disputed costs from a recent court case, Barnwell Farms remains out to the tune of over £22,000, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.

Earlier in 2020, the Co Down farm business won a judicial review case taken against DAERA, after the Department went against the view of an independent panel at Stage 2 review, and excluded the farm from direct payments under active farmer rules.

In total, the case cost Barnwell Farms £85,125 in legal charges, and that was after it had managed to negotiate a discounted rate for solicitor and counsel fees. In the end, DAERA reimbursed Barnwell Farms a total of £62,664, leaving a deficit of £22,461.

An offer made by the directors of Barnwell Farms to settle for £10,679 was rejected by DAERA last month.

The Calvert family (the directors of Barnwell Farms) have raised two main concerns over the past few months. The first relates to the extent of the charges levied on them by legal representatives.

In total, the case cost Barnwell Farms £85,125 in legal charges, and that was after it had managed to negotiate a discounted rate for solicitor and counsel fees

“We have made a substantial complaint to the Senior Partner of McKees solicitors of Belfast in August and anticipate a full response to our complaint in early January 2021,” confirmed Robert Calvert.

The second concern relates to the precedent set in previous judicial reviews brought by the UFU.

In the two judicial reviews taken by the UFU on behalf of its former president Ian Marshall, the union spent around £263,000, and despite winning those cases, only recovered just over 50% of its costs from DAERA (approximately £140,000).

In a third judicial review in 2018, which challenged DAERA on a decision to remove the independent panel from the Stage 2 review process, the UFU agreed to cover its own legal bill of around £108,000.

Representatives of the Calvert family have suggested that the UFU should make a case to have the costs of the Marshall judicial reviews looked at again, to reduce what they believe is prejudice in their own claim for outstanding costs.

We have made a substantial complaint to the Senior Partner of McKees solicitors of Belfast in August and anticipate a full response to our complaint

Meanwhile, a request by Strangford MP Jim Shannon to DAERA for an ex gratia payment of £99,950 to be made to the UFU, for what he believes was a “wholly unnecessary challenge” in the third judicial review, has been declined by the DAERA permanent secretary.

As well as questioning whether this third judicial review should ever have proceeded (DAERA changed the review of decisions process at a time when Stormont was dissolved), Shannon has also raised issues about the deal reached between DAERA and the UFU.

At the time, both sides agreed to maintain the independent panel at Stage 2 review, and that new evidence could only be brought to the panel in “exceptional circumstances”.

Shannon now has constituents coming to a Stage 2 Review worried that they cannot introduce new evidence as a result of this agreement.

50 cases

With up to 50 cases since 2015 where the Department did not accept (in part or in full) the recommendation of the independent panel, work is ongoing to see if these cases can be looked at again.

When asked during a webinar for Co Down members last Thursday evening whether the UFU supported having these cases re-assessed, UFU president Victor Chestnutt gave a non-committal response.

However, he did welcome Minister Poots’ recent statement that the view of the independent panel would be final going forward.

His deputy, David Brown also maintained that since the court case taken by the UFU on the review of decisions process in 2018, out of 29 cases taken to Stage 2, on only two occasions has the Department failed to accept the recommendations made by the independent panel.

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