Staffordshire County council Reform UK leaders questioned on county farms days before new policy set to be approved
A council’s promotion of two county farms for future housing development – despite leaders saying they would stop farms being sold off – has sparked questions just days ahead of a new policy.
Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet is due to back the new County Farms Policy Statement at its meeting on Wednesday (March 18).
But the Reform UK-led administration was grilled on previous actions involving two North Staffordshire sites at the latest full council meeting, which was held on Thursday (March 12). Reform UK member Councillor Rhys Machin asked: “Can the cabinet member ensure no county farms are being sold for development purposes?”
Conservative Councillor Richard Holland asked: “Could the cabinet member please confirm if a submission was made by Staffordshire County Council in November 2025 for the inclusion of sites AB12 – Land East of Diglake Street (Bignall End) and AB33 – Land off Nantwich Road / Park Lane (Audley) in the Newcastle-under-Lyme Local Plan? Can the cabinet member please also confirm if the county council has since asked Newcastle Borough Council to remove these sites from their local plan process and, if so, when they did so?”
Acting leader Councillor Martin Murray said in his written responses, shared at Thursday’s meeting: “The county council has been engaged with the preparation of the Local Plan for Newcastle-under-Lyme 2020-2040 since the borough council published its ‘Issues and Strategic Options’ emerging plan on 1st November 2021, through to the most recent consultation on main modifications to the borough local plan which ran from 5th November 2025 to 17th December 2025. Representations were submitted by the county council in relation to sites AB12 and AB33 to clarify matters raised by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) during the examination in public in May/June 2025.
“The county council wrote to the borough council on 3rd March 2026 withdrawing all land from the Staffordshire County Farms estate from Local Plan processes, including AB12 and AB33. This is in line with the Farms Policy Statement which is due to be adopted by Staffordshire County Council at Cabinet in March.
“This will secure the County Farms estate for farming only. All farms being promoted through the local plan process have been withdrawn from local plan activity (and) no farms are to be sold.”
In a response to another question on county farms put forward by Councillor Holland last month, Councillor Murray said there had been no farms “actively” for sale when the Reform UK administration came to power in May 2025. He added: “Since coming into administration I have spent time getting to know the service and future plans and found that the previous administration had put county farms into local plans in Stafford, South Staffordshire and Newcastle, which could have easily lead to the sale of our farms, so I have paused that work.”
Councillor Holland said at Thursday’s meeting: “Unfortunately, what he neglects to say, is those representations were to re-include county farm land AB12 and AB33 for housing, contrary to his stated position in public since May 2025. Does the interim leader accept Conservative-run Newcastle Borough Council removed sites AB12 and AB33 from the Local Plan in summer 2025, and that Reform-run Staffordshire County Council requested that they be re-included for 180 houses, just before Christmas?
Councillor Murray replied: “It was following the Conservatives’ policy on farming and that has not yet been changed – it gets changed on Wednesday. I have tightened it up a bit, hence why it did not come through in January.
“The bit I added to it is the county council will not promote any county farmland holdings for the statutory land use planning process. Our farmland will be protected for farming.
“The county council will, in exceptional circumstances, allow incidental surplus land and property to be identified and potentially sold for alternative uses on a case by case basis, where it can be demonstrated that the proposed change of use would not have a material detrimental impact on the operational efficiency, integrity, or long-term sustainability of the county farms estate.”
