Ministers have announced that ponies will be taken out of the grazing calculations that would have forced them out. There will be monitoring to keep pony numbers up, and a new payment to support the people who keep them.
This was never just a Dartmoor problem. It came from national rules that applied every bit as much to Exmoor and Cumbria, which is why this matters right across our uplands.
This change happened because of you. More than 200,000 people signed to protect Dartmoor's ponies, and over 10,000 of you signed my letter for Exmoor. Ministers listened because ordinary people refused to stay quiet. That is what people power looks like. Well done Friends of Dartmoor Hill Ponies and everyone who campaigned to make this happen!
On Exmoor, hundreds of environmental farm agreements are about to run out with no scheme their keepers are even allowed to join. Having won this, we now turn to that.
But today is a day to say thank you.
