OLD ADVERSARIES Yorkshire and Lancashire will go into battle together at next week’s National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs (NFYFC) annual general meeting and convention.

Members from the White and Red Rose counties will be putting their traditional rivalries to one side and singing from the same hymn sheet when the controversial subject of membership subscriptions is discussed at the gathering in Blackpool, which takes place between May 4th and 6th.

There is a motion from NFYFC council to increase the levy paid by individual clubs into the national federation coffers by 30 per cent.

Ed Bentley, chairman of Yorkshire YFC’s events, finance and general purpose committee, explained the county’s decision to support an amendment by Lancashire to limit the increase to 10 per cent.

We are not against an increase in levy – YFC still offers excellent value for money,” he said. “But 30 per cent is too much of an increase in one year.

The national federation needs to be budgeting more longer term to ensure these steep jumps are not required. This peaks and troughs approach is not sustainable and doesn’t sit comfortably with our members.

We are proud to be backing Lancashire and supporting their very sensible compromise of 10 per cent.”

Rachel Parker, chairman of Lancashire Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs, said it was great to hear that Yorkshire was behind them.

An increase of 30 per cent is just too steep and a lot of counties will struggle to find this extra money,” she said. “It’s great that Yorkshire is supporting us and that we can speak at the convention with a united front.”

Read about this story in the Yorkshire Post here