Council advised to be 'surgical' in farm estate cuts

A six-month inquiry into Cornwall Council's farms estate has found that it would be "unwise" to sell off all 80 farms to help reduce its debt of almost £1.4bn.

The authority has instead been advised to cut the number of its dairy farms and farm buildings, with officers cautioned to be "surgical" in their approach.

A proposal to review the farm estatewas met with concern by farmers, campaigners and some Cornwall councillors when it first came to light last summer.

The inquiry found the release of the entirety or "large parts" of the estate would be "unwise", but that it needed to "work harder and better" to meet the "pressures and needs" of the community.

A report to be considered by the council's sustainable growth committee this month, looked at views from external independent witnesses, as well as council officers, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

They included representatives from Cornwall Young Farmers, the National Farming Union (NFU), the Tenant Farmers Association, the Cornwall Agri Food Group and the Country Land & Business Association.

The group's recommendations include:

• The farms estate should meets the long-term needs of the council and taxpayers
• Income from the estate should exceed costs, maintenance and staffing
• Capital investment is needed with the goal of increasing income or reducing cost
• Buildings and equipment must be reduced to cut costs
• Dairy farms should be reduced to a "smaller number of well-equipped and maintained holdings"

The report said buildings and equipment must also be reduced to "bring down cost".

"Officers need to be surgical in their asset management decisions to achieve this," the report said.

Its authors conceded that dairy farming had been the "foundation" of the estate for many years.

However, it said financial pressures would "inevitably" reduce its ability to invest in the infrastructure of all existing diary farms to meet "modern standards set by milk-buyers".

It said efforts had been made to reduce the overhead costs of maintenance and repair of buildings but this was "wholly unsustainable" with the current size of the estate.

A number of council-owned farms were sold off at the end of last year.

They included: 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 is due to discuss the farms strategy inquiry at its meeting at County Hall in Truro on 16 June.

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