County to continue farm sales policy (From Gazette & Herald)

County to continue farm sales policy

4:00pm Thursday 15th May 2008

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NORTH Yorkshire County Council is to continue selling its farms, after its executive agreed that income from deals would be used to finance the authority's capital plans and reduce debt.

A report by Brunton Knowles, carried out for NYCC, revealed that it had made £30.8 million from selling smallholdings.

The farms estate totals 5500 acres, but income has fallen from £720,000 to £535,000 a year, said the report.

The report was commissioned by County Hall to review the council's policy on the progressive sale of tenant farms which started in 1998. Brunton Knowles' recommendation that the current policy on selling farms to sitting tenants, should continue, was agreed by the executive.

County Coun Mike Knaggs, of Malton, the current chairman of the county council, welcomed the review although he said he acknowledged that he had not been enthusiastic about the sale of the County Farms Estate in the first instance. He said prices had doubled in 10 years and was supportive of the action plan which had been developed.

Coun Knaggs said he particularly approved of re-investing some of the capital back into the estate.

Corporate director John Moore said the disposal policy had worked well, but believed it was time to reinvest some of the capital.

Coun Carl Les said a meeting had been held with Tenant Farmers' Association and further meetings would be held.

The executive also agreed that vacant possession of a farm will not automatically be pursued following the death of a tenant "if it is expedient not to do so" or if it would cause undue hardship to surviving relatives.

Brunton Knowles was critical in its report of failures to carry out repairs and maintenance and the lack of diversification on the council owned farms. It said that £794,000 should be re-invested in the estate over the next five years.

"There seems to have been some shortfall in attention to both repairs and maintenance and improvements driven by budgetary constraints" said the consultants.

Tenants have had to serve formal notices to get repairs carried out which was normally a device of last resort for people dealing with difficult landlords said Brunton Knowles.

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