Campaign group wants to prevent development of High Street farm

A NEW campaign group has been set up to protect one of Portishead’s last remaining High Street farms from major development by its new owners.

The Court Farm Group – led by well-known open air pool campaigner Roger Whitfield – has been set up in an attempt to open talks with the new owners of Court Farm and Springfield Farm, which sold at auction for nearly £900,000 last month.

The farm, which in parts dates back to the 1100s, was sold at auction despite campaigners from the Save Court House Farm action group putting in a £500,000 bid to buy the site from Bristol City Council and turn it into a community farm and heritage centre.

Portishead Town Council (PTC) put a bid in for the Springfield Farm section of the site in an attempt to secure its future for community use, but this was turned down.

The city council announced late last year that it was planning to sell off Court Farm, also known locally as Gales Farm, because of the mounting costs of maintaining the buildings.

It is understood that the farm – one of the last remaining green spaces in the town’s High Street – will be turned into a private home by its new owners, who are understood to come from London.

North Somerset Council (NSC) has already said it will not allow any major development of the site, parts of which are Grade II*-listed.

Members of the new group have already met with NSC, and spoke to English Heritage and PTC to discuss ways of preventing any major development of the site.