Council reveals policy preventing farms sale

Plans have been revealed to prevent the future sale or development of farms owned by Staffordshire County Council.

In November, the authority's Reform administration announced it would halt the planned sale of some farms, but later accepted there were no active farm sales proposed when they took office.

There are currently 63 equipped tenanted farms in Staffordshire along with additional rural properties and land, covering approximately 6,500 acres.

The authority's acting leader, Martin Murray, said: "Our rural economy is hugely important, and the future of food security is something we all must protect for generations to come."

Emails seen by the BBC show whilst council leaders were saying they would stop farms being sold off, the administration actively kept two of its farm sites promoted in the Newcastle-under-Lyme local plan for housing development, and appealed against a decision by the borough council to remove them.

In the last week Reform county councillors have withdrawn those two sites from future housing plans.

Audley and Chesterton Reform councillor Rhys Machin said the sites were proposed for development long before his party were elected, adding: "I am pleased that we have now formally written to the borough council making it clear that county farms land should not be included in their housing plans."

The authority has now set out a long-term county farms policy for the 6,500-acre estate, which councillors say will protect the 63 current holdings from sale.

Conservative opposition councillor Catherine Brown said: "This U-turn will be welcome news to people in Bignall End and Audley, but it is clear that if we had not exposed this plan these two farms would have been sold for housing by the council, despite Reform's pledge that there would be no county farm sales under their leadership."

Brown added that Reform's promise was "not worth the paper it is written on", pointing to a line in the policy that states: "The county council will, in exceptional circumstances, allow incidental surplus land and property to be identified and potentially sold on a case-by-case basis."

Brown argued this "drives a coach and horses through the promise not to sell any farms".

The policy is set to be approved by the council's cabinet on 18 March.

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