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Greenmeadow Community Farm
A seventeenth century farmstead in Cwmbran and 150 acres of land were saved from development by a group of local people. The land has since become a community farm offering a teaching resource, a recreational facility and a sanctuary for wildlife and rare animal breeds. This case study from May 1997 is presented in the original format as provided by the Local Government Management Board in the UK, as part of the cross-sectoral Local Agenda 21 case study project.	Biodiversity Local needs Access Knowledge Leisure

Greenmeadow Community Farm

A seventeenth century farmstead in Cwmbran and 150 acres of land were saved from development by a group of local people. The land has since become a community farm offering a teaching resource, a recreational facility and a sanctuary for wildlife and rare animal breeds.

This case study from May 1997 is presented in the original format as provided by the Local Government Management Board in the UK, as part of the cross-sectoral Local Agenda 21 case study project.

Biodiversity

Local needs

Access

Knowledge

Leisure

Project Summary

In the early 1980s a group of local people formed an action committee in a bid to protect one of the last green spaces in Cwmbran from development. The group came up with the idea of a Community Farm. With support from local organisations, and funding from local authorities and other agencies, the original seventeenth century farmhouse was restored as a focus for a community farm of 150 acres with rare breeds, wildlife, and educational activities. The farm has also become one of Wales' top twenty tourist attractions, with a wide range of local and national user groups.

Project aims

Greenmeadow farm was established to help all groups that might benefit from a farm in an urban context. The aim was also to protect one of the last green spaces in Cwmbran from development.

Who has been involved ?

A group of local people initiated the project. The local MP also became involved and subsequently the community and borough councils, the Girlings Trust, the Welsh Development Agency, the Welsh Tourist Board, and the European Regional Development Fund.

How was it started ?

A group of local people working their allotments near the farm were concerned to see that another plot of land was being prepared for factory construction. They set up a founding committee, brought together a group of local volunteers and succeeded in negotiating a short term lease to use the buildings on the site. In the initial stages, the committee worked with a wide range of organisations to keep the project going, including the Youth Opportunities Programme, Youth Training Scheme and the National Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders. A manager was employed for a short time, keeping the project momentum going and developing good will.

It was very useful to have influential individuals as members of the committee: over the years these have included the Chairs of the Housing, Economic Development and Direct Works committees of Torfaen County Borough Council, who in turn co-opted the Deputy Borough Treasurer and the Director of Personnel on to the committee. The committee persuaded the Cwmbran Development Corporation to lease the land which now constitutes the farm to the project.

The project also benefited from the establishment of a charitable trust for the people of Cwmbran by a local company, Girlings. This fund effectively pump-primed the initial major investment, helping to attract European Regional Development Fund money and Torfaen Borough Council support.

It was probably also significant that unlike other new towns, Cwmbran was not developed with a wealth of cycle ways and parks, and thus there was an obvious case for an initiative offering public access to open space.

With the demise of the Development Corporation, the group negotiated a longer lease with the Borough Council and finally, after a decade, substantial capital investment. Involvement of local councillors in the committee also helped gain formal commitment from Torfaen Council.

OUTCOMES

Achievements

The main achievement of the project has been to protect and enhance the local environment while also providing educational opportunities. The farm is established on land considered difficult to develop; it slopes quite steeply and is best suited for meadowland and grazing. In addition, there are about fifty acres of woodland, and the farm managers have planted over ten thousand trees and created eleven ponds. The bulk of the land is outside the security fence and has open access, with many paths laid out to attract people into the area.

The farm has a herb garden which supplies the kitchen. Eggs produced go to the local schools for incubation and the rare breed chickens hatched tend to be sold on to private individuals. Offspring of the farm's pot bellied pigs are also sold on. Some piglets reared on at the farm go directly to slaughter. Milk from milking demonstrations is bottle- fed to calves. The offspring from the suckler herd of twenty cows and flock of eighty sheep either maintain the population or are sold to the local market. The wool from shearing which is not required by the resident group of spinners and weavers goes to the Wool Marketing Board.

While the particulat focus of Greenmeadow has been on helping the young, there are also around one hundred evening user groups ranging from an epilepsy support group to the local camera club. Examples include the following:

The Gwent Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers have their base at the farm, meeting twice a week and using the facility when they wish.
The Greenmeadow Pigeon Club was one of the first groups to join the farm and has built up a successful pigeon racing record with a hut on site for racing activities and a piece of ground set aside for members of the club who have no garden.
The Greenmeadow Beekeepers place their hives on the farm and use one of the buildings for spinning, making honey and working with local school groups.
The Cwmbran Dog Training Club uses an empty paddock in summer for members to train their dogs.
More recently a group offering carriage riding for the disabled made the farm its base. The farm has accessible buildings and land on which the group can keep its animals and the farm trails are well suited to carriage driving.

All the groups using the farm have seen their numbers grow: the facilities seem to be much better than elsewhere, and the additional attractions of cafe and bar open in the evening help make the farm a social focus for Cwmbran. The overheads for the facilities are met in part by the income from day visitors to the farm.

Unexpected outcomes

As the user groups mentioned above demonstrate, the success of the project has been unexpectedly great. Aside from its growing role as a focus for all kinds of community activity, Greenmeadow is also now one of Wales' top twenty tourist attractions. In all, 120,000 people visit Greenmeadow each year.

RESOURCES AND MANAGEMENT

Human resources

Along with the considerable voluntary input from the management committee and others in the early stages of the project, there are now eight full time and twenty part time staff.

Funding and expenditure

The project now has an annual turnover of around £400,000. The capital funding for the project came from the European Regional Development Fund, the Girlings Trust, the Welsh Development Agency, the Welsh Tourist Board and Torfaen Borough Council.

Project management

Initially, volunteers, friends and a management committee oversaw the development of the project. To secure funding it was necessary for outside consultants to prepare a development strategy which recommended a staffing structure of a director reporting to the management committee. Meetings are held around six times per year, but are more frequent during rapid stages of project development.

Measuring success

The achievements of the project are the measure of its success. Measures include:

the extent to which the land is protected and enhanced;
the level of visits - there are currently 30,000 school visits per year;
use of the facilities by a wide range of user groups;
conservation value: the numbers of wild animals using the site as a safe haven in an urban environment.

Problem areas

It has been essential to have a committee with vision, and a management structure on the ground which can translate that vision into a working model. The linkages between these two elements can be problematic.

The success of the project may also bring problems. The financial survival of the farm is now dependent on securing a high level of visits and this might be threatened by developments beyond the control of the project, such as the establishment of other attractions in the vicinity of the farm.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Maintaining the success of the project is the key to the future, and a period of consolidation is planned.

There are also new plans; the farm recently put its outlying land under the organic aid scheme. Another new priority will be to increase the biological diversity of the pasture land. There are plans to convert a barn into a resource centre for the local community which will provide two additional meeting rooms and a resource room with photocopier and perhaps desktop publishing facilities. A community composting initiative is also under consideration.

Greenmeadow remains committed to its mission to enhance the land, further its role in education and allow greater use of its facilities by community groups.

Contact address

Peter Pusey
Director
Greenmeadow Community Farm
Green Forge Way
Cwmbran NP44 5AJ
Tel: 01633 862202

The Local Agenda 21 Case Study Project Steering Committee has selected case study projects as examples of interesting (and not necessarily 'good') practice. Case study selection is based on the opinions of the individuals comprising the Steering Committee and does not necessarily reflect the views of the organisations participating in the Case Study Project.

At the time of publication and to the best of our knowledge, the information contained in this case study was correct.

The Steering Committee cannot vouch for any of the organisations involved.