A farm in Ryde that is set to become 475 houses is the latest subject of a value of community asset application after the local Town Council threw its support behind the plans.
On Monday night a motion was approved by Ryde Town Council (RTC), with 13 votes in favour and 2 abstentions, to support the idea of Westridge Farm becoming a community farm and apply to the Isle of Wight Council for it to be listed as an asset of community value.
Putting forward the motion, deputy Mayor of Ryde Jenna Sabine, said it was heartbreaking to see the personal side of the development, with the Holliday family potentially losing their home and business despite signing a lease in the 1960s for 3 generations of farmers to be on the land.
As previously reported by Island Echo, the Holliday family turned down an offer of £800,000 from the landowner. The Holliday family had been offered 50 acres of freehold land and a farm building off nearby Bullen Road, together with a cash payment, in a deal worth a staggering £800,000. The deal was accepted in writing and contracts were drawn up, but prior to signing the Hollidays demanded an additional £200,000 of value – taking the total to £1million.
Councillor Jenna Sabine said:
“The Hollidays have already lost fields to development and have to look onto 88 houses that have been built. They don’t want to see any more.
“They have invested a lot of money and I think we should be doing everything to protect that family and the green space.
“I understand we need houses but they need to be somewhere else. ”
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The site at the top of Ryde is the subject of a yet-to-be-determined planning application, submitted by Island developers Captiva Homes, for 475 houses, as well as a doctor’s surgery and cafe.
RTC as a body has supported the retention of the land and objected to the planning application, which is thought to be heading to the Isle of Wight Council’s planning committee soon.
If the council were to be successful with its application, it would join other noticeable Ryde landmarks as community assets like the Ryde Arena. An asset of community value means when the landowner wants to sell the property, the community has 6 months to pull together an offer.
Cllr Michael Lilley, Mayor of Ryde, said the family had been successful in applying to the Plunkett Foundation — a national body for agricultural and rural development to support communities exercising their rights.
A mentor has been funded by the foundation to help the Hollidays pull together a plan for the future, making the farm viable, in the form of a couple running a community farm in Shropshire.
As the last dairy farm in Ryde, Cllr Lilley said it is important to retain the farm as it would be an important educational resource for children, having the only automated milking system on the Island.
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Lisa Carter, who along with Cllr Sabine fronted the motion, said she understands there is a housing shortage on the Island but having a community farm and supporting the family, ‘who have had the rug pulled out from under them’, is important.
Cllr Carter said the farm wants to develop, providing winter tourism, attracting mainland schools, as well as community events such as an outdoor cinema and milk vending machine.
Cllr Sabine said it would not just be about the educational side of things but also as a source of local produce, supplying milk and other items to the town.
What a joke, community assets, community eyesores more like, as for Ryde Arena, that is built on bodge recovered land, and it’s still moving too, into the sea.
I wonder where Captiva Homes expect to find doctors to man the proposed (but unlikely) surgery?
The developers the pinks of Capitva don’t care, for they and all their loved ones can afford private health care and private education.
It is just a sweetner for the gullible and there is plenty of those who only realise their naivety too late.
No doubt more homes are required but not these types of homes and not on green fields. We need to bring back Council housing, I’m sure rental houses can be built that are nice to look at and have a low impact on the environment. Many people would rent them if they had security of tenure and had the knowledge that any tenant behaving anti socially could be evicted after warnings had been given.
much needed houses..
no, that is a pack of lies…
there are no encampments in shop doorways of homeless families huddled together under blankets.
if there are no state funded moves to the island for benefit claimants and the council pull its finger out and make second home ownership prohibitively expensive on the island, then the so called housing issue largely resolves itself.
captiva run by pink doesn’t do this for the island, -they advertise these homes as far away as sheffield – he is just trying to add to the islands problems for his own financial gain.
The Council is already stretched to its financial limit providing “temporary” accommodation for homeless families (typically in B&B where they have to spend most of the day outside).
What’s much needed is affordable housing, ie homes for rent, affordable by those on minimum wages. What we actually build far too many of is 4-bed, 4-bathroom luxury mansions beause they can be sold at huge profit to mainlanders.
Here’s hoping our new Council will grasp this problem and resolve it …
They wouldn’t need temp accommodation, if the council would adopt a policy of “you aren’t from the island and are on benefits, you aren’t moving here at the taxpayers expense. They should go on to say, we do not provide social housing unless you are a resident of the island for at least 5 years before any application could be considered.”
There are always statements about ‘much needed homes for locals’ but given our population was stable and actually falling slightly in 1997 until they opened the floodgates, the vast majority of all housing built in the South since then has not been for anyone ‘local’ and will not likely be into the distant future either (they will be directly for newcomers or for those moving out of areas now flooded with newcomers – 300,000 net arriving each year every year, that’s a lot of homes needed before any local anywhere gets a look in)
If it stops another disgusting vile unneeded development designed only to line the developers pockets – bring it on. Great idea.
It just means 450 more homes built elsewhere on green space. It wont stop it, we need zero new homes, were more than full as it is!
Much needed homes for mainlanders.
I have to comment on the rather naive reporting style that makes it look like the tenant farmers turned down up to a £1 million payday. They did turn it down, but this was payment that would have been used to set-up a new farm. The land offered was not big enough to be viable as a dairy farm and more importantly the farm building mentioned is a barn. NO farmhouse, NO dairy, NO other services / infrastructure in place, which all would have to have been built from scratch and paid for by the tenant. Payment terms were no help, all delayed until the tenants left Westridge. The herd would have to have been sold off. A hollow offer at best.
I moved into a street of newly built houses. Nine properties and only two have Isle of Wight people in them. The other seven belong to people who moved from mainland. Two people have totally embraced island life and do alot for island charities and the island environment. One family is totally immersed into island life. One family commutes to work on the mainland. Two people bought two of the properties – so one each – 7 bedrooms between two of them and hate everything about the island and do nothing but moan and give nothing to the community.
These were properties that were meant for island people.
These same people are nowapparently pushing to gain the old Flamingo Park site to ‘develop’.
Unpleasent people out for their own gain, and care nothing for the Island, only what they can leech from it.
I wonder if Island people moving to the mainland are made unwelcome, we are all part of UK. However, don’t need 4 bedroom overpriced housing here, we need affordable rental/council housing for all who are on waiting list
The difference is Island people moving to the mainland would be swallowed up, you would hardly notice they were there, but the Island is a very small geographical area and vast numbers of people moving here can not do so without making an appreciable difference, usually for the worse it has to be said, bringing mainland ideas down here, not liking countryside on their doorstops, as in not liking insects, wildlife around them. One woman was freaking out when she saw a hedgehog in her garden, and covered it with gravel so as not to encourage any more. We do not want people like that here! Hedgehogs are endangered now.I despair.