Why not make farms owned by Eastbourne Borough Council available for young to get on the farming ladder?

Eastbourne Borough Council has re-let one of the farms it owns on the Sussex Downs.
Plumpton CollegePlumpton College
Plumpton College

While it’s better than selling it off, do they forget the reason we had council farms in the first place?

It was to allow young people to get on to the farming ladder. Allowing the farm to be taken over by an existing tenant was not the idea.

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We have hundreds of young people coming out of Plumpton College who would like to go into farming. True, one needs a large sum of capital to start, and a large unit would cost too much to begin one working farming life.

But what an opportunity to create some smallholdings on the downs, and allow young people to have their own account.

Maybe when we leave the European Union, the money we give the EU can be used to create small farming enterprises, with the Government underwriting any loan given to those starting out.

Food security is something no political party is taking seriously. They should. We all need feeding, and long term tenancy arrangements are needed.

Laurence Keeley

Fairfield,

Herstmonceux