Bureaucrats rule

I was once a civil servant. I don't always admit it although actually I rather enjoyed it. I think that this helps me understand the mentality. In designing a process or a scheme you try and think through all the permutations: what could go wrong and then come up with a scheme that you hope doesn't land your Ministers in hot water. If you get it wrong it can lead to fines from Europe; political problems for your boss and a job move for you! Its rather like a game of chess. It seems very hard to design a simple scheme.
If you are running a business you are always short of time. You always seem to have too many jobs to do and you are responsible for them all! You are perpetually fire fighting. Interruptions happen all the time. The phone goes just when you are trying to do something else and you seldom have time to sit down to uninterrupted desk work. So what you want are simple schemes.
What really catches you out are the questions that you can't answer in the short period of uninterrupted time that you have allocated. Often this is on Sunday or late in the evening when you can't phone anyone.

Cadbury Castle-under an HLS agreement

We are in a Higher level Scheme- an environmental scheme. It is complicated. Tight deadlines are laid down (presumably so that Natural England can manage their budget). The prescription involves getting approval for certain capital works from the Natural England Adviser; English Heritage and Devon County Council. Is this really necessary? The cuts have meant that these advisers are very thin on the ground or have moved jobs although these days they are much more willing to help when you can get them. Getting everyone together however is nigh on impossible. Some jobs too have been delayed by the weather so that deadlines can't be met. The payments don't cover the costs, although they are better than they were.
Here I am now on a Sunday wanting to get a claim form as my cash flow is under pressure. I can't ring obviously so I try the Natural England website. I try the search function... "Capital works claim HLS" seems a good place to start. No trace. Tomorrow morning the phone will start ringing again. I think that I'll head-butt the wall.