Environmental Liability Cover
The Environmental Liability directive gives The Environment Agency power to order polluting businesses to provide a remedy for contamination.

When possible, we have previously negotiated cover with certain insurers under the property damage sections for businesses' “own pollution clean up costs”, to limits of £25,000. We are pleased to inform you that certain insurers can now offer an environmental liability extension to the pollution section of the farm policies. In other cases, we are able to obtain a separate policy for this.

We will be discussing this with you when reviewing your policy at renewal time, but, in the meantime, if you would like to discuss this, please do contact us and we will be more than happy to run through the options open to you.

Machinery Theft
As you will be well aware, machinery theft is rife at the moment and it seems to be getting worse. Tractors and Land Rovers are currently prime targets.

We are now looking at how to deter such thefts and at preventing the thieves from being successful. With insurers we are discussing discounts for clients who voluntarily provide additional vehicle security and are talking to a number of equipment suppliers for preferable rates. In the meantime, we would strongly recommend additional security for any higher value equipment.

County Farm (Aviva)
We are now able to offer a new policy to our farming clients. County Farm is an agricultural policy underwritten by Aviva Insurance, run by us at County Insurance Services. Many clients (both existing and new) have enjoyed a host of benefits including:

• Highly competitive pricing
• Additional covers and increased limits on new & enhanced policy wording
• Direct access to claims departments enabling prompt decision-making
• All documents issued from our office, ensuring better accuracy & quicker turnaround.

Your account handler will be pleased to discuss this with you before your policy falls due for renewal.

Please do contact either Tim (01865 290921) or Mark (01865 290915) with any questions you may have.

YFC Rally
We were delighted to be approached to sponsor the recent Oxfordshire County Fayre, hosted by Bicester YFC at Manor Farm, Fritwell. The day went well and there were plenty of smiles around. We understand that the YFC are pleased with the turn-out so congratulations to all concerned with their professionalism and organisation.

Being Timely Can Save You Money!
Regarding motor claims, recent legislation stipulates insurers now have a 15-day time-limit to form their liability decisions from the claimant’s notification of the incident. The aim is to move all claims to a fixed costs system, reducing legal and credit hire fees, and thus the overall cost of a claim.

If our insurers do not have the information in time, the claim may move outside the new system and the costs will increase rapidly.

What does this mean for you? As a policyholder, you can help our insurers defend third party claims and keep costs down by:

• Reporting third party claims to us
  immediately
• Gathering as much information from the
  third party as possible at the scene of the
  incident
• Ensuring that we are kept abreast of all
  vehicle changes so that the motor insurers' database is correct at the time of the loss.

If you have any questions on this, please contact our claims manager, Tracey Collen on 01865 290923