WG bought £4.25m farm without vital survey

FORMER Economy Minister Vaughan Gething did not have a wildlife survey when he decided to press ahead with the £4.25m purchase of a farm.

A Freedom of Information Act request published on the Welsh Government’s website did not directly answer whether the Welsh Government commissioned a wildlife survey relating to Gilestone Farm.

Instead, the response said the Welsh Government did not hold the requested information.

That is—at best— an equivocal answer. It could lead the casual reader to conclude that the Welsh Government once held such a vital document but no longer holds it.

Plans to lease the Farm, the purchase of which was heavily criticised in an Audit Wales report, foundered earlier this year when it emerged ospreys nested at the site.

The Welsh Government was criticised for “buying the most expensive bird’s nest in the world”.

The Herald sought clarification about the meaning of the Welsh Government’s response to the Freedom of Information request.

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government told us: “Whilst no wildlife survey was carried out prior to purchase, the RSPB have confirmed no ospreys would have been noted regardless, as they had not begun nesting at the site before summer 2023.”

The presence of ospreys before summer 2023 is neither here nor there.

When spending such a significant amount of public money, the Welsh Government could have and should have commissioned a wildlife survey to establish whether any protected species would be affected by the land’s planned end use.

Doing so should be vital before investing public money in a significant project, no matter how much it purportedly meets Labour’s broader “policy aims.”

Instead, the Welsh Government unthinkingly spent scarce resources without crucial information.

As purchases go, it’s like buying a house without a survey. You can do it, but you’d be a bloody fool if you did.

The Welsh Government cannot wriggle away from that point by claiming it did not know what use the land would be put to.

Those behind the Green Man Festival engaged with the Welsh Government for several years before the land’s purchase.

A company intended to take the lease of the site was incorporated weeks BEFORE that purchase’s completion.

In a report published last year, Audit Wales criticised the conduct of the Welsh Government’s purchase of Gilestone Farm over the open market price.

The report and subsequent examination of the acquisition by a Senedd Committee revealed that the Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, ignored protocols regarding the Farm’s purchase and was either kept in the dark by Welsh Government civil servants or blind to the lack of a workable business plan and the reality of the Green Man Festival’s intentions for the land.

Audit Wales also ridiculed suggestions that there was no pressure to spend the money used to buy the Farm, which emerged from an underspend during the financial year. Instead, Audit Wales said the idea that the money had to be spent in short order or be lost was wrong and that undue haste was used to circumvent commercial considerations or an assessment of risk.

Without simple presale checks, the purchase looks even riskier and more rushed than Audit Wales identified.

The Welsh Government bought land with a tenant already planning to take over its running, even though the prospective tenant had neither a business plan nor a funding case prepared.

The Green Man Festival was never going to relocate to Gilestone Farm. Instead, a company headed by one of the Festival’s organisers would have taken a tenancy and redeveloped it to accommodate training facilities.

The Welsh Government’s purchase followed several years of secret negotiations with the Green Man Festival’s operators.

The Festival gets subsidies directly from the Welsh Government and a host of other Welsh Government agencies and arm’s length bodies. However, it is also partly owned by a multi-millionpound ticketing agency.

Welsh Government civil servants – and ministers – met with the Festival organisers, planning to give it even more public money and subsidies to boost Labour’s rural policies and polish its green credentials.

However, Welsh Government civil servants and Labour ministers ignored issues about the land, including its situation on a large flood plain, environmental issues, and pre-existing rights over the land.

Under Mr Gething’s less-than-vigorous scrutiny, the Welsh Government paid way more than the asking price for land on the market at a much lower price for a protracted period without being sold.