It would be 'unwise' to sell off 80 Cornish farms, inquiry finds
A council committee is likely to endorse that the local authority cuts the number of its dairy farms and reduces the number of farm buildings and equipment
A six-month inquiry into Cornwall Council’s farms estate has found that it would be “unwise” to sell off the entire estate of around 80 farms to help reduce its almost £1.4 billion debt.
However, a council committee is likely to endorse a recommendation that the local authority cuts the number of its dairy farms and reduces the number of farm buildings and equipment it owns to bring down costs.
The possible sale of a large part of the estate previously triggered widespread alarm among local farmers, campaigners and some Cornwall councillors when the council decided last summer to consider the future of its farm assets and farming service.
A report to next week’s sustainable growth committee says that a Task and Finish Group – which was set up to look into the economic successes and failures of the estate – feels that “the release of the entire or large parts of the estate would be unwise, but that it needed to work harder and better to meet the pressures and complexities of the council and the communities it serves”.
The group’s six-month inquiry considered wide-ranging opinions and views from external independent witnesses, as well as from internal officers and through research by the members of the group.
Those taking part included representatives from Cornwall Young Farmers, National Farming Union (NFU), Tenant Farmers Association, Cornwall Agri Food Group and the Country Land & Business Association.
The group’s recommendations include the council retaining a farms estate and service into the longer term, “albeit that it needs to meet the needs of the council and its taxpayers both financially and non-financially”.
It found that the estate needs to function in a position where income from activity exceeds the cost of maintenance, property holding costs and staffing. Capital investment will be required to invest in the estate to support this position but done so to increase income or reduce cost.
The number of buildings and equipment on the estate must reduce to bring down cost. “Officers need to be surgical in their asset management decisions to achieve this,” suggests the report.
It is also recommended that the number of dairy farms must reduce to a smaller number of well-equipped and maintained holdings.
“Recognition that whilst dairy farming has been the foundation of the estate for many years, the council’s financial pressures will inevitably reduce its ability to invest in the physical infrastructure of all the existing dairy farms to meet and keep modern standards set by milk buyers,” states the committee report.
“Whilst efforts had been made to reduce the overhead costs of maintenance and repair, the cost of retaining and maintaining the number of buildings (houses, traditional stone buildings, general purpose farm buildings; plus the specialist equipment, milking parlours, slurry containment, silage) is wholly unsustainable going forward at the current level of physical buildings on the estate.”
A number of council-owned farms were sold off at the end of last year. They were Resparveth (west) Farmhouse at Grampound Road, Lower Trebrown Farmhouse at Saltash, Treburthes Farmhouse at Ruan Highlanes, Treneath Farmhouse at Liskeard, Meudon Farmhouse at Falmouth, parts of Barwick and Furda Farms estate at Tregony, and Coosewartha Farm at St Agnes.
The sustainable growth committee will discuss the farms strategy inquiry at its meeting at Lys Kernow (County Hall) in Truro on Tuesday, June 16.