Ditton Priors community embarks on exciting new approach to management of local assets
Shropshire Council, at the Annual Meeting of Ditton Priors Parish Council yesterday (Thursday 19 April 2012), announced its hope to work with people in the Ditton Priors area on an innovative new approach to supporting local communities to be more sustainable.
More than 50 people attended the meeting and indicated overwhelming support for the idea of transferring land at Oak Farm owned by Shropshire Council to the community.
Together they looked at how Oak Farm could become a Community Land Trust, building on existing strong links between the farm and the community. Community Land Trusts are democratic and locally-controlled non-profit making social enterprises that own land for the good of the local community.
Oak Farm, which is owned by Shropshire Council, consists of nearly 11 hectares of land within the centre of Ditton Priors, near Bridgnorth, comprising of two previous smallholdings. Part of the land is used by Shropshire Council to provide day services for up to 50 adults with learning disabilities. They are involved in a range of activities to look after animals, and grow, produce and sell vegetables, plants, fruits and preserves.
The community uses include allotments, a composting scheme, a Forest School and a local history centre managed by the Ditton Priors history group. Each year the popular Ditton Priors Country Show and Fayre also takes place at Oak Farm.
These services, and the range of existing community uses of the land, would continue, and look to develop further, if it was transferred to the community.
Robert Tindall, Shropshire Council’s deputy Cabinet member for asset management and Shropshire Councillor for Brown Clee, said:
“The council, as part of an ongoing review of its land holdings, is keen to work with the local community to discuss and develop options to transfer the ownership of Oak Farm to the community. Strong support was voiced at the meeting yesterday to explore these options for the transfer of the farm to a new community-based social enterprise.
“This is absolutely in keeping with our work to support local communities to have ownership of assets and to develop and use these for the benefit of local people. This approach could make a real difference to the community at Ditton Priors and provides the chance for local people to have even more input and be creative in the use of a key village centre site.”
Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council Cabinet member responsible for disability, said:
“Everyone at Oak Farm makes an extremely valuable contribution to local life in Ditton Priors.
“There is a real sense of enthusiasm about exploring this proposal, and the possibilities it could open up in building on how the farm and the local community already work closely together to enhance the village.”
At yesterday’s parish council meeting, local people also heard about recent experiences at Bishop’s Castle where the Bishop’s Castle and District Community Land Trust was launched in 2007. The Bishop’s Castle Community Land Trust has already built two small affordable homes which it rents to local tenants, and has more than 300 shareholders.
If anyone is interested in learning more about these proposals or in joining a small working group to take the idea forward, they are asked to get in touch with Neil Willcox, Shropshire Council commissioning manager on 01743 255051 or email neil.willcox@shropshire.gov.uk
The interaction between the people who work at Oak Farm and the community has been recognised in winning a national Community Recycling Champion award, and being named runners up for the Best Partnership in national local authority recycling awards.
