Lincolnshire Farm Trust
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Lincolnshire Farm Trust. De Montfort University, Leicester took over the running of both Caythorpe and Riseholme Agricultural Colleges from Lincolnshire County Council once the College became incorporated (alongside all Further Education Colleges nationally) in 1994. De Montfort University were chosen in preference to the newly established University of Lincoln because the then Principal of the Riseholme College, John Moverley, was afraid that University of Lincoln, recently established and short of cash, would asset strip. Very prophetic! However, there was nonetheless much concern in the County; particularly that a Leicester-based University could sell everything and the money and the physical assets would disappear to Leicester and we would have no Agricultural Education here in Lincolnshire, the premier agricultural County in the UK. As a consequence of this, the Farm Trust was set up under which a Panel was established, under the Chairmanship of Sir Henry Neville . The current members of the Panel are myself as Chairman and Julian Proctor (both members of the Panel since its inception) along with Vice Chairman Mark Leggott, Michael Brearley, Mark Ireland and Jack Ward. The Panel members are united in their common mission to ensure that the land and facilities are retained for the benefit of land based further education students in Lincolnshire. The establishment of the Farm Trust ensured that De Montfort University were bound by an "Asset Deed" and a separate trust document which stated that if any assets were to be sold, the approval of the Panel would be required, and any cash realised had to be used for the purposes of land-based Further Education. In 2000/1 Caythorpe Farm and Campus were sold by De Montfort University and Lodge Farm at Nettleham was bought as a part substitution. A balance of 130 acres is still owing and the Panel requires this promise to be fulfilled. Control of the assets passed from De Montfort University to University of Lincoln in 2001. The Farm Trust Panel continued to meet and received 1 assurances from the then Vice Chancellor David Chiddick (who fortuitously moved from De Montfort University to University of Lincoln at just this time) that all agreements would be honoured. The Panel members have documents on file confirming this. The Panel had a good relationship with University of Lincoln for several years, evidenced by regular meetings and correspondence. This continued until 2012 when the relationship began to turn cold. Mary Stewart, the new Vice Chancellor, answered all our enquiries with the comment that all responsibility for further education had passed to Bishop Burton College and electing to ignore our repeated questions about the assets, including the farm. This became more and more frustrating for the Panel members, particularly as the Vice Chancellor has refused all efforts to arrange to meet. The Panel then approached Bishop Burton College who, at that time, knew nothing of our existence. However we quickly realised that we were on the same side. University of Lincoln now claims that when it took control from De Montfort University it was free of any Trust or Asset Deed. This is despite the in-house solicitor and clerk to the Council of University of Lincoln making clear the University’s promise to be bound by the then current Asset Deed and Trust at the time of the transfer from De Montfort University and this being reiterated by the University of Lincoln’s conduct in the years that followed. The Panel was aware of University of Lincoln’s original plans for housing at Riseholme which would not have unduly disturbed the farmland and would have generated good source of investment for Riseholme College which has been under-funded by both De Montfort University and University of Lincoln. We are now aware that the Tenant of Riseholme, Bishop Burton College, only has a lease of limited facilities until 2020, with no chance of an extension, and then they have to vacate. University of Lincoln refused to transfer the freehold of any part of the site to Bishop Burton College before Bishop Burton College took over the provision of education. At one stage following the 2012 transfer it said it might be willing to entertain a transfer of the land but then pulled out and firmly closed the door. A good thing really, because it wasn’t theirs to sell without first coming to the Panel and complying with the Asset Deed. Bishop 2 Burton College is therefore unable to invest large amounts of money in the Riseholme site because it has only six years left on its leases and so the decline of that site becomes inevitable unless the University of Lincoln changes its position. University of Lincoln has, and is doing, everything that it can to cause Bishop Burton College to default on its leases so that they University of Lincoln can obtain vacant possession early. It is a continuing battle of wills with Bishop Burton College refusing to allow land based Lincolnshire further education students to be prejudiced in this way. The following information has been provided by BB: - Bishop Burton College wanted to acquire ownership of the land but was only able to secure short term (eight year) leases, and even then only of certain buildings. - University of Lincoln charged an extraordinarily high service charge in the first year and, whilst it managed to get that figure reduced after approximately a year and a half of fighting the service charge remains expensive. - University of Lincoln has now largely vacated Riseholme. - University of Lincoln refused to allow Bishop Burton College to take a lease of certain parts of the campus which the College required (and still requires) - e.g. the CoVE building, adequate teaching space, area for student services and laboratories. - The farm is of huge importance to land based further education students. For Lincolnshire’s premier land based college not to have been allowed by University of Lincoln to retain a farm is unthinkable. Bishop Burton College’s students were ordered off the farm in the run up to Christmas 2012. University of Lincoln eventually allowed access under licence but it was too late for the 2012/13 cohort - licences were finally agreed after the end of the 2013 Summer Term. Since then Bishop Burton College has only been able to secure access for students one year at a time, with gaps in between the licences as it awaited them from the University. This year’s farm licence came very late. - The issues are ongoing - such as the further education students have not been able to use the shared laboratories in the Lindsey Centre for the past two months because University of Lincoln has removed most of the equipment and relocated it to Brayford Pool. Bishop Burton College is investing at the Showground because it has committed to remain in Lincolnshire notwithstanding the expiry of its leases at 3 Riseholme. The intention was for the additional facilities at the Showground to be a second string to the bow for land based further education in Lincolnshire. In an ideal world the Panel should have known what was going on earlier, brought this to a head then, removed control from University of Lincoln to facilitate more investment at Riseholme. However, moving forward, the investment at the Showground will complement the facilities at Riseholme and the Panel members wish for control of the land to be passed from University of Lincoln to Bishop Burton College with immediate effect. Bishop Burton College has confirmed that it would agreed to be bound by a Trust under a new arrangement very much along the same lines as at present. The Panel members are very impressed with the facilities at Bishop Burton College’s East Yorkshire base. We are hopeful that they have the means and the will to do the same for Lincolnshire and they are our favoured supplier for to take forward land based further education here at Riseholme. We are setting up an On Line Petition and also hope that people will write to Cathy Robinson at the Skills Funding Agency. The main purpose of this brief is to bring to the attention of the community who we are and why we need your help. Further information can be obtained from: Charles Dobson. [email protected] 07970 0800 12 Vice Chairman, Mark Leggott [email protected] 07932 620 556 Mark Ireland [email protected] 07967 380 093 Michael Brearley Julian Proctor. And please express your concerns to: Cathy Robinson 4 Head of Legal Skills Funding Agency Cheylesmore House Quinton Road Coventry CV1 2WT Email: [email protected] Thank you. Charles Dobson. Chairman Farm Trust 28th Oct 2014. 5 .