In Comes New Year with a Big Bang - The insurance is Due today!

Yes it must be just about the worst time of year to renew our insurance... although in hindsight there probably isn't a best time is there lets face it.
Faced with a renewal bill of £6555, it was pretty obvious that I was going to approach other companies for a quote. One local company in Knighton failed to respond at all to my e-mail asking for a quote, another local company regretfully informed me that although they would love to provide cover, the insurance organisation they dealt with refused to touch the butchery side of the business, and so I managed to get one quote from a Ludlow based firm which is looking very promising at the moment at £4575........ it is unbelievable that these can be quoting for the same cover don't you think?
Not having received our single farm payment yet, or our ESA payment, I have spent considerable time on the phone over the past few weeks trying to find out what was happening. Most Welsh Farmers were supposed to have their payments on December 1st, which is what happened to us last year, but not this.... after a week I phone The ministry of Agriculture in Llandrindod Wells to find out what was happening. I was put through to a HELP department, although i feel this may have been in appropriately named!
I asked when I would receive our payment and was told she wasn't sure. I asked what the problem was. I was told she wasn't sure. I asked to speak to someone who could help me as I would like a definite answer. She asked me to write in. I told her no I was on the phone and I would like someone to answer me now rather than me writing a letter which would take at least two weeks for someone to answer. She was unable to help. I asked about our ESA payment. This is the Environmentally Sensitive Area payment we get, not for free, but in return for agreeing to quite a large amount of criteria, which costs us money to comply with, such as paying a contractor to pleach or lay a certain amount of hedging each year, keeping ponds and certain wildlife areas free, not putting fertiliser down in certain places. She was unable to help so I asked to be put thought to the head of the ESA department.
Please note that in October I had phoned the ESA dept. and queried if our claim was all OK with no complications or problems and I had been told yes everything was fine. So you can probably imagine my frustration when I was told that the file had been taken away because of some queries. I complained, as you do when things are not going your way, that these claims had been in for 12 moths how come at the very last minute when the payment was due that a problem was found? I was even more astounded when I was told that if it was a query to do with the land and maps, and that three weeks before Christmas the mapping dept. had closed for refurbishment and currently had not re-opened - nearly 12 months!
Is it any wonder that we farmers pull our hair out sometimes, how can a ministry dept. function in this way?
Lets hope the new year changes a few things - or that we change a few things for ourselves..........