Major EU threat to Morris Minor obsession

High in Sligo's Ox Mountains, David Carroll surveys the unusual "stock" that has subsidised his family farm for more than three…

High in Sligo's Ox Mountains, David Carroll surveys the unusual "stock" that has subsidised his family farm for more than three decades.

Diversification has proved necessary on many small farms throughout the rural north-west. For Mr Carroll, that meant turning his love of Morris Minors into a paying proposition.

Wild brambles and saplings grow through the rusty bodywork of dozens of Morris Minors which nestle amid land "set aside" for vintage cars on the 32-acre farm near Tubbercurry village.

Other cars, in happier condition, include the 1948 Ford Prefect driven by Cyril Cusack in the film Ballroom of Romance and featured in Amongst Women.

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Film producers, set designers for theatre groups and vintage enthusiasts searching for rare parts are among the customers who regularly beat a path to the Carrolls' remote farm.

"My obsession began with a scrap Minor I bought for £15, patched up and drove all over Sligo on our honeymoon in 1970," said Mr Carroll. As his interest in vintage cars developed during the 1970s, so did customers.

"People brought their cars here from miles around for David to fix. We reared a family of four on the proceeds when times were hard," said Frances Carroll, David's wife.

David, however, says that the introduction of tighter EU environmental legislation in the autumn may threaten the business he has built up over decades.

An ongoing survey in the western counties commissioned by Mr Eamon O Cuiv , Minister of State for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, suggests that Phase 2 of the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) will require tighter measures to gain approval from Brussels.

The REPS scheme aims to support sustainable agriculture while protecting the environment.

Eligibility for payment requires farmers to set aside land, tend hedgerows, plant broadleaf trees, build drystone walls in keeping with local tradition, attend to general maintenance and clear all obsolete vehicles and machinery.

Mr Carroll says that his "obsolete" Morris Minors may pose an obstacle to his eligibility for REPS. "If you want the headage, you have to do what the EU says, so maybe the cars will need to go, but it would be terrible. This land could be cleared and grazed by cattle in a few months.

"But it would be a real loss. There's no harm in the beautiful old motors," he said.