Council defends spending £74k on Greenmeadow Community Farm

The county borough council agreed to spend £74,700 on external consultancy work into future investment proposals for Greenmeadow Community Farm in Cwmbran last month.

The consultancy work is aimed at developing an effective business model for the farm, to make it financially sustainable and reduce the council’s subsidy of around £200,000 per year.

But at a full council meeting on Tuesday, Independent councillor Janet Jones questioned the amount spent on consultancy fees.

“While members are of the opinion this facility is vital in the south of the county, we the Independent group fail to see how this sum of £74,700 is a justifiable sum of money to spend, especially when we will shortly be setting a budget and will not know how many sectors are likely to face cuts in services, ” she said.

But executive member for resources, Cllr Kelly Preston said the council needed outside ‘expertise’ to make a business plan aimed at making the farm sustainable and commercially viable.

Cllr Preston said the council wants to keep the farm open, but that the aim is to remove the subsidy and make it “self-sustaining”.

“We have had many discussions and it has been agreed we don’t want to close the farm,” Cllr Preston said.

“We subsidise the farm heavily every year and we need to make it financially sustainable.

“I understand it appears to be a lot of money, but when you consider what we put into it every year – if we look at the long-term financial sustainability of the farm – we need to do this piece of work.”

Fears for the future of the farm were previously voiced when Torfaen council proposed slashing its funding by £200,000.

But the proposal was reversed after a public backlash which saw thousands of people sign a petition to save the farm.

The council has since agreed to invest £255,000 to maintain the farm at a meeting in September, where it was also agreed to seek external support to review its structure, business planning and marketing.