A typical County Farm

Review of county farms

Over the next few years, the County Council is facing a number of major challenges affecting the delivery of its services. These include the need to;

Provide high quality caring services to an increasingly elderly population.
Rebuild and refurbish the majority of the secondary schools in the County.
Meet the Government's targets to significantly reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

These are some of the challenges, but there are many others and they all have major financial implications for the authority.

To address these challenges the County Council is currently undergoing a series of thorough reviews of all our services and assets. This includes a review of all land and property holdings, including County Farms. The purpose of these reviews is to examine whether current services and assets are still high priority, especially when judged against other priorities and the new challenges.

The County Council currently owns and manages 121 equipped farms covering 8,700 acres. They are mainly small farms ranging from about 50 to 150 acres. The service provides a key gateway for people coming into farming, particularly young people, where land and property costs act as a real barrier to entry. The service contributes to the regeneration of the County's rural areas by supporting businesses and jobs, and in improving the rural environment.

A Consultation Brief, setting out these issues in much more detail can be downloaded click here . Please note the closing date is Friday 14 December.

What Do You Think?

The County Council wants to know what you think about these issues. The key question is:

"Do you feel that owning and operating a farms estate should be a high priority for the County Council?"

Please email your comments to the County Council by clicking this link. Thank you for your views.

Page Last Modified: 07/11/2007 11:15:45

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