Welsh Government has been accused of spending a whooping £4.25million to buy a farm site for a popular music festival before much of it was declared out of bounds due to nesting ospreys, it has been reported.
In 2022, the Welsh Government funded Gilestone Farm in Powys to serve as a permanent base and auxiliary site for the Green Man festival due to financial constraints faced by the organisers.
However, last year, a pair of ospreys, formidable fish-eating raptors, established a nest at the site, marking the farthest southward nesting of this species in Wales in two centuries.
As ospreys are a protected species, Economy Minister Vaughan Gething confirmed on Monday the implementation of a 750-metre restricted zone around the nest, reported Mail Online.
Despite this, during a session in the Senedd yesterday, Gething asserted that it was a favourable arrangement, emphasising that the government secured a £75,000 reduction from the market value of £4.325million.
Mr Gething, a frontrunner to become the new first minister, told the assembly: “Public money hasn’t been wasted. We acquired an asset at slightly under market value. We have a commercial tenancy, a commercial farm business tenancy on the site. So, the site is in use.
“And, indeed, we are looking at the longer term future for Green Man, which, as I say, is a fantastic cultural and economic asset for mid Wales.”
However, Cefin Campbell from Plaid Cymru strongly criticised the decision to purchase the farm.
Six months after the transaction, a local conservation group released a report indicating that the ospreys, with a potential wingspan of nearly two metres, had been “frequently recorded in the area in 2021 and 2022, including records that demonstrate use of Gilestone Farm.”
Mr Campbell told the Senedd: “There’s no hiding the fact that significant questions continue to be asked about the purchase of Gilestone Farm by the Welsh Government. And long before any ospreys landed, this farm was mired in controversy.
“To say it had a troubled history is an understatement. Indeed, as James Evans has already alluded to, any simple Google search on this farm would have shown that, in the last 15 years before its purchase by Welsh Government, it had been the subject of major planning rows, judicial reviews, appeal court action, planning inquiries, even leading to national park resignations, and the previous owners forced to leave the farm.”
He added: “Arguably, few farms in Wales have been the subject of such arduous and contentious local and legal disputes. Were I to buy a farm in rural Wales, given the chequered history of this farm, that would have rung alarm bells in my mind.”
Since 2003, the primary Green Man Festival has been held near Crickhowell in Powys, drawing crowds of up to 25,000.
An auditor has previously criticised the Labour-run Welsh government for acting with “avoidable haste”.
James Evans, Welsh Conservative MS for Brecon and Radnorshire, told Mr Gething: “I hate to say that there’s a bit of, ‘I told you so’’, about all of this.
“A lot of people in my community are very angry about the situation that we actually find ourselves in. The basic due diligence of the Welsh Government has to be questioned over this purchase.”
Green Man managing director Fiona Stewart, said: “While we are obviously disappointed that the project will not be going ahead at Gilestone Farm, we will now look at other opportunities.
“The team at Green Man extends its deepest gratitude to everyone who has supported the Gilestone Farm project.”
Campaign group Stop Gilestone Farm Project said: “We have always been concerned that the environment and landscape is of paramount importance, and the appearance of two osprey has been testament to the exceptional habitat and wildlife in this area.
“The Welsh government must accept there were legitimate local concerns about this scheme and these have always been carefully and respectfully presented by our campaign group.”
