Confirm your information and submit your application
To confirm the information in your application is correct, check it before you submit it online.
When you’ve completed your application you need to check that the information in it is correct. To do this, create or update your application summary by following the instructions in the ‘View and print documents’ section. Then if needed, you can go back into your application and change it.
If you decide you do not want to submit your application, click ‘Withdraw’. A message appears to check that you do want to withdraw the application.
Click ‘No’ if you do not want to withdraw it.
Click ‘Yes’ if you do want to withdraw it. You’ll see a screen message confirming that you’ve successfully withdraw the application. This application will not be submitted to RPA, and you cannot open it again but you can create a new application while the green application buttons are available.
Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen (where you’ll see the application status is now ‘Withdrawn’ and the application is no longer ‘Active’).
If you have checked your application summary and the information in your application is correct, click ‘Submit’ to apply for the Woodland Management Plan grant.
If your application meets all the requirements for the grant and you have completed the declaration, the screen will confirm that your application has ‘submitted successfully’ to RPA.
Click ‘Print’ if you want to print and keep the confirmation for your records.
Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen (where you’ll see that the application status has changed to ‘Submitted’ and the application is still ‘Active’. It also shows the date and time your application was submitted.
The deadline for RPA to receive your supporting documents is given in the ‘Supporting documents and evidence’ section.
Application fails to submit
If your application fails to submit, a screen message will tell you this. It will also show the reasons why it did not submit with a red warning box beside it.
Read this message fully by using the scroll bar to the right of the message. You may find it useful to print and save the message. You may be able to do this by clicking the button on the right side of the ‘mouse’ or ‘touchpad’, and choosing the print or save options.
Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen.
Check and correct all of the sections detailed in the message before you ‘Submit’ your application again.
The information below will help you to identify what you need to do before you submit your application again.
Agreement Name information not complete
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘Agreement Name’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Enter a name for your agreement then click ‘Save’ and ‘Close’.
All responses on the Eligibility form must be completed
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘Eligibility’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Answer ALL of the eligibility questions and click ‘Save’ then ‘Close’.
Eligibility form not complete
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘Eligibility’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Answer ALL of the eligibility questions and click ‘Save’ then ‘Close’.
Locations of Woodland (parcel under agreement) form not complete
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘Locations of Woodland (parcels under agreement)’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Add the land parcels you want to include in the application and click ‘Close’.
Parcels under agreement does not contain at least one parcel selected that is not already used in another active application
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘Locations of Woodland (parcels under agreement)’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Add the land parcels you want to include in the application and click ‘Close’.
PA3 Area covered not complete
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘PA3 – Woodland Management Plan – Area covered’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Enter the total area of woodland in your application, then click ‘Save’ and ‘Close’. Note: the Woodland Management Plan is only available on woodlands that have a total area of 3ha or more.
You must select ‘Yes in the Declarations section to be able to submit your application
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘Declarations and Undertakings’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Click ‘Yes’ to confirm that you accept the declaration and click ‘Close’.
Declarations and Undertakings not complete
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘Declarations and Undertakings’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Click ‘Yes’ to confirm that you accept the declaration and click ‘Close’.
One or more of the parcels in this application are ineligible due to being in another application/agreement. Please review the ‘Parcels under agreement warning report’.
You need to ‘Open’ your application from the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen, and click ‘Locations of Woodland (parcels under agreement)’ under ‘Edit your Application’. ‘Remove’ any land parcels that are listed in your ‘Parcels under agreement warning report’. Read the ‘Add land parcels’ section for more information.
After you’ve submitted your application and returned to the application screen, you will see a green application ‘summary’ button beside your submitted application details.
Application summary
You may have already created this at the ‘Edit your application’ screen while you were completing your application. You should ‘generate’ and ‘download’ it again after you complete your application to make sure it contains everything you’ve put into your application. As explained earlier in the ‘View and print documents’ section.
You may want to print or save your application summary and keep it for your records.
Evidence
Read about any evidence needed for your application in Countryside Stewardship grants on GOV.UK.
You must keep the evidence for your Woodland Management Plan grant until you’re asked for it. Do not send it to RPA. (Read the ‘After you’ve applied’ section).
(The Forestry Commission will send the approval letter to RPA).
Supporting documents
After you’ve submitted your online application RPA must receive your supporting documents within 30 days of the ‘Submitted Date’ in the initial Countryside Stewardship applications screen. If you cannot submit them to reach RPA within the 30 days you must tell RPA within the 30 days why you cannot submit them. If we do not receive either, we’ll need to reject your application. To check what evidence you must keep until you’re asked for it read Countryside Stewardship grants.
Supporting documents: for example,
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Application map(s) – showing the full area of the woodland covered by the Woodland Management Plan you’re applying for. Read Annex 1 for more information.
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Woodland Management Plan Annex - there are 2 sections to complete:
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‘Start here; and
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Annex B – Area and grant amount
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Do not complete Annex A - land summary.
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To get a copy of the Woodland Management Plan Annex email ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk or call 03000 200 301.
How to submit your supporting documents
You can scan your map(s), and save your completed Woodland Management Plan Annex as a pdf, then email them all to ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk.
The maximum size of emails we can accept is 32MB.
For security reasons, we cannot accept discs, USB pen drives or other external storage media.
Do not include links to cloud storage, for example Dropbox or Google Drive, as we cannot accept documents this way.
You must put your SBI and Application ID number in the email and on all documents. Also use ‘Application – CS – WMP’ as the email subject heading.
Or you can post the documents to RPA using the address in the ‘More information, contact details and data protection’ section. We recommend you get ‘proof of posting’.
If your application meets the eligibility criteria, you will be offered an agreement.
You’ll receive confirmation regardless of whether or not your application has been successful. If it’s successful you’ll receive an agreement offer letter. The Agreement Start Date will be set out in the agreement documents contained with the agreement offer letter.
If you want to accept the agreement offer you must return the signed acceptance declaration to RPA within 20 working days of receiving it. If you do not accept the offer in time, it will be withdrawn. The person signing the acceptance declaration must have at least ‘View’ business permission level, and ‘Submit’ permission for CS Agreements in the Rural Payments service. You must either accept or decline the offer.