CSA Letters

A Letter that has bene sent to the Ecological Land Co-operative and the Soil Association's Land Trust in relation to the possible availability of land in the Moss Valley, see the Community Land Trust page for background information.

Subject: Sheffield Community Supported Agriculture Project Land Purchase Enquiry

To: The Ecological Land Co-operative 

To: The Soil Association's Land Trust 

Date: 10th June 2009

Hi

I am writing to see if you would be interested in the possibility of purchasing some land for a Community Supported Agriculture project near Sheffield on behalf of Transition Heeley / Meersbrook [1].

There is considerable local interest in setting up a CSA project, we have had 3 local meetings, with between 50 and 30 people at each one.

There is the possibility that two fields, one approx 3 acres and one approx 9 acres might be for sale in the Moss Valley, a idyllic part of Derbyshire just 3 miles from Meersbrook and they might be put up for sale as soon as September, see the attached map and the site report and photos here:

http://wiki.transitionsheffield.org.uk/Moss_Valley

We have been discussing setting up a local Community Land Trust, however we are concerned that we won't be able to get everything in place by September, this is why we are contacting you -- would you possibly be interested in discussing purchasing this land on our behalf with the understanding that we would lease / buy the land from you when we are in a position to do so?

All the best

Chris

[1] http://wiki.transitionsheffield.org.uk/Heeley-Meersbrook

The replies from The Ecological Land Co-operative:

Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:34:06 +0100 Subject: RE: Sheffield Community Supported Agriculture Project Land Purchase Enquiry

Unfortunately we are not in a position to help you; we have only recently raised money to develop our first site of ecological small-holdings and are about to launch a campaign to raise money for subsequent sites.

I trust that you have been in touch with all of the organisations working in the area of CSA and CLTs? If not, give me a call and I can give you contacts for organisations looking to support the development of such projects. You could very well get some financial and physical support.

And a follow up email:

If you are looking for a loan to cover part of the cost of the land, it would be worthwhile calling Joe Ludlow at Venturesome (part of Charity Aid) on 0207 832 3026 or jludlow@cafonline.org. His organisation has money available for CLTs and offered us a loan.

And the reply from the Soil Association:

Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:44:21 +0100 Subject: Re: Sheffield Community Supported Agriculture Project Land Purchase Enquiry

Many thanks for your email and apologies for the delay in replying. Unfortunately, we are not in a position at present to purchase any land having only just set up the Trust. We are effectively at the beginning ourselves and do not have the capital funds with which to take on more land at present, although it is our aim that this will change in the future. The farms which are in the Trust at the moment have been gifted to us which has enabled us to establish the Trust and get it underway.

We wonder whether you have contacted other CSAs which might be able to help such as Stroud or Wye (http://www.wyecommunitylandtrust.org.uk/). A good contact who may be able to help with advice and some ways forward (and who helped Fordhall Farm get underway among others) if you haven't already come across him is Martin Large and you can contact him via the Community Land Trust (http://www.communitylandtrust.org.uk/).

We wish you all the best of luck with your project and are sorry we can't be of more help at present.