Blake's Black Flock

Coming soon....

Community Farm Business Plan

Vision

Farming is about people as much as it is about produce and profit.  My vision is concerned with growing healthy food and healthy futures, and is best summarised by a quote from Masanobu Fukuoka’s book, One Straw Revolution:

The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

I am looking to form part of a small group and together develop a series of rural enterprises on a farm.  This plan is tentative and designed to spark discussions towards forming the group, finding a site and together producing a final plan with which to approach key stakeholders such as planners and investors. The holding would be mixed, and based on Permaculture, sustainable design systems.  The site would be both outward and inward facing: a destination for enterprises that are accessible to, and serve the local community, as well as provide a home for the group who will manage and develop the enterprises.  The site would be managed cooperatively and would apply one of the many possible land partnerships readily facilitated by new legal structures. It is recognised that there is a strong need for farming to change and innovate.  Three proposed developments were recently announced by the Coalition Government that look set to boost rural economies and will support this initiative: investment in rural ICT infrastructure, the opening of Rural Enterprise Hubs, and grants for Women in Rural Business. 

The farm would be an exemplar rural enterprise; economically, ecologically and socially.  Enterprises could include a mixture of the below:

1.    Community, or ‘Care Farm’ (see detailed plan below)

2.    Market garden

3.    Produce shop

4.    Field kitchen/café

5.    Sheep rearing to produce wool for specific markets

6.    Forest school

7.    Education/skills provider & facility

8.    Retreat destination

9.    Leased office/workshop space to SMEs

1. Tourist accommodation and activities

The market

There are several, inspirational rural enterprises in Devon and Cornwall:

·         Embercombe Farm

·         Seale Stoke Farm

·         Potager Garden

·         Sharpham Trust and Estate

·         Schumacher College

·         Dartington Hall Trust

·         Riverford Farm

·         River Cottage

·         The Husbandry School

·         Occombe Farm

·         Eden Project

·         Farms for City Children

All offer unique opportunities for members of the public to engage with the natural world. Their excellent reputations and sustained, economic viability testify that there is a demand for diversified land enterprises. The initiative that I plan would enter an established market with unique selling points:

1.    Community accessible: a local destination embedded within the village/town providing services and employment/volunteering/education opportunities, and linked to local businesses

2.  Cooperatively managed Community Interest Company (CIC): a small group with diverse skills and qualifications manage a range of activities and are accountable to community stakeholders

3.     A  network of associates with the expertise to deliver specialised services in addition to the skills of the core group, enabling the business to expand and adapt
4. Strong links to Plymouth University; health and community education/placements/research

5.    Holistic vision combining low-impact living with sustainable enterprise

Below is a more detailed plan relating to one of the many potential enterprises that would comprise the Community Farm.

Community Farm Plan

Rationale

‘Care farming’ is the nationally recognised term for the therapeutic use of farming practices by Care Farms UK.  Care farms utilise the whole or part of a farm, be they commercial agricultural units, smallholdings or community farms, to provide health, social or educational care services for one or a range of vulnerable groups of people.  Care Farming is a growing national movement in the UK.  The popular BBC television programme ‘Countryfile’ highlighted care farming as an increasingly lucrative area of farm diversification during a programme in Jan 2011.  ‘Countryfile’ presenter and agricultural journalist Adam Henson espoused the ‘financial and emotional rewards’ reaped from care farming and one care farmer who was featured on the programme described her business as ‘lively and profitable’.

Across the UK both the health and social care, and farming sectors are currently facing unprecedented challenges.  Health and social issues that include obesity, depression, disconnection from nature and an increase in the number of disaffected young people place much pressure on health and social care providers and education providers.  In addition, the farming sector has suffered many setbacks recently that threaten the economic viability of farming.  Challenges faced by the sector include BSE, foot and Mouth and bluetongue as well as fluctuations in markets, late subsidy payments and adverse climatic conditions.

The business case for care, or community farming hinges on the potential win-win scenario for both the health and social care, and farming sectors. This is because Care Farming offers:

•           Evidence of positive outcomes

•           Support for individuals to develop confidence and promote participation

•           Development of employment skills

•           Economic viability of farming

•           Community bases

•           Benefit to the local economy

There are over two thousand Care Farms in Europe.  The Netherlands and Norway lead the way in terms of numbers.  In the UK there is a growing movement towards green care in many contexts, ranging from social and therapeutic horticulture (STH), animal assisted therapy (AAT), ecotherapy, and green exercise activities.  There is robust evidence in support of Care Farming.  According to the key findings of a research project conducted by the University of Essex in 2008 entitled, ‘Care Farming in the UK’ (Hine, Peacock and Pretty, 2008):

•           Spending time participating in care farm activities is effective in enhancing mood and improving self-esteem

•           Working on a care farm can significantly increase self-esteem and reduce feelings of anger, confusion, depression, tension and fatigue, whilst also enabling participants to feel more active and energetic

•           Care farming therefore offers an ideal way of helping a wide variety of people to feel better

Care Farming is one, reasoned response to the Coalition Government’s call for the creation of the Big Society as it involves small businesses focussing their efforts and  profit on serving the wider community.  There are currently 130 Care Farms in the UK and 6 are in Devon; 3 Care Farms in Mid-Devon, 1 in the South Hams, 1 in Teignbridge and 1 in North Devon.  The development of a community farm in Teignbridge, for example has the potential to meet two[1] of Teignbridge District Council’s four key strategic development objectives, namely:

•           To achieve a sustainable pattern of development

•           To enable the identified economic and community needs of rural areas to be met whilst safeguarding the open countryside from inappropriate development that would diminish its inherent values

Teignbridge describes itself as ‘agriculturally important’[2] area that needs:

•           New local employment opportunities

•           Support for agriculture

•           Support for community facilities

The community farm has the potential to meet those needs by:

•           Employing a small team of local staff and volunteers

•           Transforming an existent farm

•           Providing an easily accessible community resource

Furthermore, by being firmly grounded in low impact, sustainable farming practices, the community farm would contribute towards meeting one of Teignbridge’s Environmental Strategic options:

•           Minimise land take/impact and protect assets

The community farm would have the potential to be an exemplar in multifunctional agriculture by providing a community service in addition to other enterprises such as the sustainable food production.  In doing so it would derive extra value from the land without compromising the local landscape. The finance section below demonstrates how working with just small groups of people can yield a healthy, financial return.

What we will sell

The community farm would sell farm-based, educational and therapeutic services to individuals and commissioners.  This aspect of the business would be small-scale and include arts and crafts, animal care and horticulture activities for small groups or individuals.

The market

There is currently much pressure on health and social care providers, the prison and probation services and on education providers to offer suitable, adequate and affordable care and support for service users.  The market for Care Farming is made up of the local Primary Care Trust, social services, schools, charities, GP patients, Youth Offending Team and individuals.  The personalisation agenda in care means that service users groups are directly accessible. 

Payment

The national picture for fees on care farms range from £25–£100 per day (most frequently around £40 per day).  Funding sources for care farms vary extensively with some funding coming from charitable trusts and others from the Learning and Skills Council, Health Care Trusts, Social Services, Big Lottery Fund and public donations.

Equipment

Protective clothing suitable for the tasks would be made available for the clients as well as appropriate equipment for the clients and in safe working order COSHH

Legal requirements

The community farm would have demonstrable standards covering areas such as:

•           Evidence of relevant training of staff to work with the expected type of clients

•           Health and safety signage suitable for the intended client group

•       A children and vulnerable persons protection policy available and formally acknowledged by any staff expected to work with clients

•           Feedback and evaluation procedures in place

•           A safety policy statement including designated names and all relevant emergency contacts

•           An Emergency Aid Appointed Person on site

•           A generic risk assessment available for the site plus one including the specific activities that you are likely to or know that you will cover with the intended client group and their abilities in mind

•           Maintained health and safety records

•           Disciplinary procedure and dismissal procedure for the clients

•           A written complaints procedure

•           First aid and emergency procedures are in place, including accident and injury records / book

•           Mobile phones or walkie-talkies are available for all staff when working away from base

Insurance

Appropriate and adequate insurance would be arranged.

Management and staff

The community farm would be managed by a member of the group with the relevant skills and experience. In addition a designated person will be employed and be responsible for working with volunteers and clients.  Staff and volunteers will be Criminal Records Bureau Enhanced(CRB) checked.

Finances

Year 1

Based on running at 5 service users, attending 3 days per week, paying £42 per day and operating for 46 weeks of the year, the community farm cashflow is as follows:

Gross Income                      

26460                        

                                    Outgoings

Staff                9994

Training         300

Equipment    1380

Insurance      1500

Marketing      230

Total               13394

Total net income per annum =      £13,066

Year 2

Based on running at the maximum, 5 service users, attending 5 days per week, paying £42 per day and operating for 46 weeks of the year, the care farm cashflow is as follows:

Gross Income                                  

48300                         Outgoings                                        

                                    Staff                            21060

                                    Training                     300

                                    Equipment                1380

                                    Insurance                  1500

                                    Marketing                  230

                                    Total                           24470

                

Total net income per annum = £23,830

Moving forward

If developing a multi-functional farm that is both sustainable and successful is something that you would like to do I would like to hear from you.

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[1] Teignbridge District Council, Strategy and Development Principles

[2] Teignbridge District Council, Rural Teignbridge

Curious Tom

The best thing about the town of Ashburton is Tom Wood and his curiosity shop.

Image by Marie-Dominique Mayer

Image by Marie-Dominique Mayer 

Image by Marie-Dominique Mayer

Image by Marie-Dominique Mayer

Image by Marie-Dominique Mayer

Image by Marie-Dominique Mayer

Community Victory

Buckfastleigh Wins Campaign to Stop Quarry Dump Site

 

On 1st March 2012 the Parish Poll took place on the planning application to allow Whitecleave Quarry in Buckfastleigh to be used for the processing of ash from the proposed Plymouth waste incinerator. Almost 50% of electorate voted - probably the largest Parish Poll percentage turnout in history! Results:

95% SAY NO to Waste dump at Whitecleave Quarry

 Parish Poll Landslide Result - NO: 1367   YES: 73

After a 4 hour debate on 25th April 2012, Devon County Council planners voted to turn the application down. None of this would have been possible without the Buckfastleigh Community Forum. In particular, Forum co-chairs Neil Smith and Julia Walton have worked tirelessly with professionalism and passion to turn this once 'done deal' around. They brought together residents, environmental organisations, Dartmoor National Park, the Parish Council and more, and deserve national recognition for their efforts. The victory proves that people care deeply about their environment and mobilise around significant issues.

Buckfastleigh c.1830

Objections to the quarry are:-

 
1. Geography 

• Whitecleaves Quarry is situated between two planning authorities and is close to the very heart of the town. 
• The site is adjacent to residential property which already suffers from noise and air pollution from the A38. 
• Such a development would adversely affect local amenity. 
• This application would have a significantly negative impact on the socio-economic status of the town. 
• There would be a detrimental effect on the town‟s tourism which benefits from 8 significant local attractions and provides significant employment for local people. We would reiterate
  that a statutory consultant for the new Teignbridge District Council Plan for 2011 – 2015 which tackles the need for our community and environment and gives new priority and guidelines for economic prosperity, quality, environment and wellbeing. 
• The site is situated only a few feet from the boundary of Dartmoor National Park Authority. 
• We are aware that other developments of this type are situated on established industrial sites with good infrastructure. We would question as to why is it necessary for this development to be sited within a residential rural town on the edge of a National Park and borders the South Hams Area of Conservation. 
• Buckfastleigh lies within a stunning valley that suffers from pollution from the A38 which is already exacerbated under certain meteorological conditions.

 
2. Site Context 

• The Town Council has studied the Review of Old Mineral Permissions (ROMP) and Mineral Policy for Devon and searched through our records and we have no sight of a planning application from Gilpins that changes the use of Whitecleaves Quarry to a waste development facility. 
• ROMP conditions from 2002 with respect to Whitecleaves Quarry explicitly state that “No materials (or refuse or waste) for the purpose of storage, processing or resale shall be imported in to the site;” this is specifically in order to “prevent the unnecessary increase in traffic attracted to the site in the interest of local amenity and highways safety.” We have not been provided with any evidence that these conditions have been revoked. 
• Although we are aware that there is a quarry licence until 2042, the Minerals Policy states it was not commercially viable to continue with quarrying. Blasting dolerite to fill a void can not be classed as quarrying. We also understand that there is no commercial market for dolerite. 
• We have had sight of the response to this application by Dartmoor National Park Authority and are in full agreement with the comments made with respect to site arrangement and mitigation.

 
3. Habitats and Wildlife 

• Members are in full agreement with Dartmoor National Park Authority and Natural England regarding the potential impact on habitats and wildlife in this area. 
• It should be noted that we are fortunate to have a variety of protected species living in the vicinity of the quarry. This proposal contravenes the protection afforded by current legislation and the legality of disturbing the established habitat of protected species should be questioned.

4. Site Access and Impact on Road Safety 

• There will be a significant increase of movement from HGVs in and out of this site which is accessed from a residential road. 
• We are very concerned for the safety of cyclists, pedestrians and other road users. 
• There will be a substantial increase in the number of HGVs from when Hansons were quarrying. Since then there has been further residential development which in itself generates more traffic. 
• We are extremely concerned that this will effectively split community cohesion between the east and west of the town. 
• The A38 was constructed in the early 1970‟s when nationally there was a significantly lower level of traffic volume and movement. We have grave concerns that the stability and structural integrity of this road and the viaduct adjacent to the quarry site will be severely compromised by the impact of blasting.

 
5. Site Activity
After carefully considering this application there is a lot of vague statements regarding the following:-

• The classification of Incinerator Bottom Ash toxic or non toxic
• The regularity of samplin
•  The average number of lorry trips“minor impact or little significance” which does not take into account cumulative effect
•  Lack of accurate information concerning the drainage system currently in the quarry
•  Lack of information regarding dust suppression measures, we do not believe that the mitigating measures for dust suppression is robust enough.

 
6. Environmental Impact
a) Contamination – Land and Water Quality 

• The Dean Burn water course has tested in the past as having water quality „A‟ as classified through the Environment Agency General Quality Assessment Process. 
• The list of pollution incidents of the Dean Burn applies to the 1990s. 
• The indicative drainage layout diagram shows water running into an existing open drainage ditch. 
• There is no diagram of the existing drainage system within the quarry.

 
b) Air Quality 

• The proposed development is likely to lead to visible emissions of dust as stated 12.3.13 occurring at the source on a regular basis, due to the number of potentially dust generated activities being undertaken across the site. The Town Council are concerned that air quality will not be continually monitored even if all mitigating proposals are put in place because the risk is deemed low.

 
c) Noise Pollution 

• It is difficult to get an accurate figure for HGV movement on Strode Road from the planning application, but it is estimated at 100 lorries per day. There is also the increase of traffic on the A38 from other planned waste facilities throughout Devon and Cornwall.The application states that dolerite will be blasted from inside the quarry to fill the void and level the site in preparation for the Incinerated Bottom Ash facility. We believe this spur of rock within the quarry with tree screening appears to protect Buckfastleigh from excessive noise levels, particularly as there will be a mobile crusher inside the quarry and other sound generating equipment.

South Devon’s Thoroughly Modern Patron[esses]

During the Interwar years South Devon enjoyed the patronage of two American heiresses: Dorothy Elmhirst (née Whitney) and Peggy Guggenheim.  The historic estates they inhabited became sites of experimentation, creativity and subversion. The larger and  famous project was Dartington Hall. Less well-known is activity that took place over two consecutive summers at Hayford Hall on Dartmoor.

Dorothy Whitney

Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight Elmhirst (1887–1968) was born in Washington DC and at 17 inherited a fortune following the death of her businessman and philanthropist father, William C. Whitney. Over her life time Dorothy was a pioneer in progressive education and benefactor of the arts, feminist, and pacifist causes as well as social and labour reform. She lent financial support to alternative education and scholarly research at Cornell University, where she met her second husband Leonard Elmhirst. Leonard was inspired by a long association with Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan, where Tagore was trying to introduce  a radical curricula and rural reconstruction into a tribal community. Dorothy and Leonard set out on a similar goal for the depressed agricultural economy in rural England by resurrecting the derelict 14th century Dartington Estate as a site for the arts, experimental land management, rural skills and crafts and education. Dartington of the 1920s and ‘30s is described as a blend of influences: Ascona, Bloomsbury, Summerhill, the Bauhaus and Jung, plus Owen and Ruskin without the egalitarian socialism but with the Indian influences of Tagore and Narayan V.Tilak relating to community and spirituality.

Dartington Hall in state of dilapidation when the Elmhirsts moved there in 1925, DHT Archives

Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst at Dartington Hall, 1967 DHT Archives

Peggy Guggenheim by Man Ray, 1924

Eight miles from Dartington on Buckfastleigh Moor is Hayford Hall. Under the patronage of Peggy Guggenheim the Hall inspired modernist experiments of a more anarchic nature. Peggy (1898-1979) inherited part of the Guggenheim fortune aged 21 but was keen to differentiate herself from her socialite circles from a young age. At 22 she found a job at an avant-garde bookshop, The Sunwise Turn on 44th Street and began her love-affair with bohemian art, spending most of the following two decades in Paris. During the summers of 1932 and 1933 Guggenheim rented Hayford Hall and hosted a literary salon with her British partner John Holms; Djuna Barnes, who wrote her masterpiece Nightwood at Hayford; Antonia White, British author best known for her convent novel Frost in May; and Emily Coleman, whose novel The Shutter of Snow was based on her own experiences of madness and institutionalization. A collection of essays about the two summers was published in 2005 entitled Hayford Hall: Hangovers, Erotics, and Modernist Aesthetics. Editors of the collection, Podnieks and Chait suggest that a specifically female kind of lived modernism emerged at Hayford Hall. They argue that the writers ‘challenged the sexual, textual, and spiritual mores of the day, both in life and on the page’.

 Hayford hall, Dartmoor

I discovered this part of Hayford Hall's history when my horse started living at the next-door farm. I was drawn to estate because of the interplay between exposure and enclosure as Moor mingles with shaded tracks and bluebell woods. Similarly, Hayford Hall: Hangovers... points to a sense of the tamed and the intractable as one of the attractions of the estate to Guggenheim and Holms*.  Coleman described Hayford as 'a dream place, a lovely, heavenly poetic garden, a Paradise, far from nowhere, deep in the trees beneath the moor'.  However, the landscape delivered tragedy as well as played muse. Whilst pony riding on Dartmoor Holms fell and fractured his wrist. Despite being reset in Totnes, the bones failed to realign and the following year he was advised to have corrective surgery. Holms, a heavy drinker died whilst under anaesthetic. Peggy described him as the great love of her life from whose death she never fully recovered.

Seventy years on, the legacy of the modernist enterprises in South Devon is mottled. On the surface, the scope and scale of the experiments can hardly be compared: one a wildish playground for a small literati; the other an established arts destination on a 1200acre estate. Today, however, Dartington Hall estate is more up-market business park than radical enclave. Since the Elmhirsts died the Trust has been addled by scandal and management troubles.  Bit by bit, it has been argued, the art has been taken out of Dartington. Protestors at the close of Dartington College of Arts in 2010 made the case when they removed the letters "a-r-t" from local Dartington road signs. Dartington Hall School declined after a drunken student fell to her death from a boarding house window, and pictures of the head master were found in a porn magazine. The school closed in 1987 and the Foxhole building will soon be an old people's home entitled 'The Abundant Life Project'. In the recent budget cuts, the summer music school lost its entire £600,000 grant from the Arts Council. The cottage industries: Dartington Glass, Tweed Mill and Pottery closed or moved and now trades a pricey shopping centre.  Perhaps most symbolic of the Trust’s departure from its original mandate is the sale of its art collection. In the 2010, 12 paintings by Tagore sold for £1.4 million at Sotheby’s, and key works by Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Alfred Wallis will soon go under the hammer. By contrast, the legacy of the art and lived experiences at Hayford Hall has only recently started to receive critical treatment. In particular, the one completed piece, Nightwood is considered a powerful and complex work, and one central to the wider project of reassessing ‘minor modernists’.

I cannot find documentary evidence that Guggenheim and Elmhirst corroborated during their time in Devon in the early ‘30s.  However, it is hard to imagine that the millionaire daughters of two influential American families/foundations were unaware of each other’s presence in a quiet corner of England. Under the patronage of two visionary women, South Devon's natural and built environments gave rise to experiments in art and living that are yet to be fully appreciated.

*Recently Hayford Hall has come under renewed scrutiny for providing inspiration for Conan-Doyle’s Baskerville Hall (corrected as being Brook Manor a few miles down the road).  Owners of Hayford Hall have played on such speculation by erecting a pair of Great Danes at their gateway, which on close inspection prove to be tombstones to pets.

 

Hayford Hall: Hangovers, Erotics, and Modernist Aesthetics, Eds. E. Podnieks and S. Chait, 2005