HAMPSHIRE is piloting the UK's first online resource to provide farmers and land managers with easy access to public information about their land.

LaMIS, the Land Management Information System, has been developed by a team including the Countryside Agency, Defra, the South East England Development Agency and the Association of National Park Authorities.

The data on LaMIS can be run off a basic PC with a modem and combines map-based information on areas such as drainage, biodiversity, archaeology and rights of way.

It is a system that allows farmers to view all the public information held about their land for the first time and to measure, calculate and print maps.

It will provide vital support to farmers with planning and decision-making, cut red tape and assist with funding and grant applications.

Hampshire is the first location to pilot the new system, which is set to revolutionise land management decision-making across England.

The system was launched recently on the 3,500-acre mixed farm of The Manydown Company at Wootton St Lawrence.

Hugh Oliver-Bellasis, land manager at Manydown, said: "LaMIS has the potential to dramatically cut farm bureaucracy and administration.

"My hope is that it will ultimately provide the mechanism for us to view all the information held on our land, to verify it and then apply it to appropriate schemes from the Rural Development Agency to the European Union.

Mr Oliver-Bellasis added: "LaMIS is important for land managers operating farms of all sizes; we need to know that the information held about our land is accurate, and then to be able to use it to manage the land.

"I will take an active role in the LaMIS pilot and urge all other land managers in Hampshire to do the same."

Mark Griffiths, a land agent with Dreweatt Neate in Winchester, said: "We currently use a mixture of paper-based records and data from an extensive number of websites. To have all the data clearly displayed in one place will save us a considerable amount of time."

He added: "Perhaps this is part of the lifeline the farming industry is looking for."