Call for extraordinary meeting over sale of council-owned farms

Leaders of the four opposing groups on the Lib-Dem/Labour run authority asked for a November meeting to present a motion proposing an immediate stop to sales of the farm estate until a sound County Farms Policy had been presented to full council.

The council cabinet’s has made a decision to sell one of the farms, part of the county's estate to a private buyer.

The head of legal services and the council’s monitoring officer told the opposition groups that the full council did not have the power to prevent the 10-strong Lib-Dem/Labour Cabinet exercising any of its functions and rejected the call for an urgent meeting.

But the groups will now go back with a second call for an extraordinary meeting calling on the Cabinet to refrain from considering future proposals for farm sales, pending the approval of a County Farms Policy.

The four groups, the Conservative Group, the Independent Group, Independents For Powys and Plaid Cymru, are also supported by non-aligned members in the call for the extraordinary meeting.

Councillor Aled Davies, leader of the Conservative Group, said: “I have tried to highlight my significant concerns about the decision made by the Lib Dem/Labour Cabinet to sell one of the council’s best farms but due to the confidentiality that has surrounded this decision it has been impossible to do so.

“It is so important that all councillors can challenge the Cabinet about their plans for the County Farm estate, an open public meeting of the Full Council is the best way to do this.

“The assets of the Council, including County Farms, belong to all the residents of Powys and must not be disposed of by the Cabinet behind closed doors.”

Councillor Heulwen Hulme, Leader of The Independent Group said: “This is totally unacceptable, non-democratic, and goes against the cabinets policy of being open and transparent. Far too much is now going on behind closed doors.

Councillor Angelique Williams, Deputy Leader of The Independents For Powys group said: “I would like to think the Cabinet will take into account the thoughts and wishes of the rest of the councillors, and residents of Powys.

“We need to keep all work transparent and we must always take into account the hard work of the scrutiny groups to keep things on the straight and narrow.

“All sales need to be done on the open market. This is public land therefore public money so we need to know we are spending it wisely for the future. We only get one chance to sell.”

Councillor Elwyn Vaughan, leader of the Plaid Cymru Group, said: "It is imperative that democracy prevails in Powys. There's huge frustration at the recent actions in relation to the farm estate and our voices and concerns which reflect the concerns of Powys residents must be heard.

“Openness and transparency is a fundamental principle which must be adhered to."