Hi,

Please email on savenewhamcityfarm@gmail.com if you can help us to move towards a charitable organisation status to offer to take on the farm site from the Council. 

The space exists and is protected but we want it to be accessible and operational again asap. We can’t do it on our own. Please get in touch. 

The email below went out to our supporters recently. 

Thank you all for your continuing support. 

kind regards,

Alison

Dear Save Newham City Farm supporters,

I hope that you are all well and that 2023 is going well so far.

We are looking for your advice, guidance and moral support, whatever you are able to offer, regarding the next steps for Newham City Farm or whatever a new farm might be named. Some of you within this email are already experienced at operating successful charitable organisations. Some, like me, may have a limited experience of fundraising and "organising" but together, we have a combination of a variety of other very relevant qualities, creativity, energy, passion, knowledge of the community, willingness, first hand experience of and need for the farm, or other useful personal and professional skills. We still believe that if we combine forces and pool this expertise, it should be possible to create a sustainable solution and achieve a community farm which is supported by the Council but managed independently of it either by an existing charitable organisation or one formed specifically to this end.

The last communication we received from the Council regarding our concerns about Newham City Farm stated that the Mayor would be very open to talks with us.

Please would you indicate whether you would be interested in first meeting with members of the Save Newham City Farm campaign team and then potentially joining with us if we were to arrange a meeting with Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz? The aim would be to see if, in the latest circumstances, now that we know since December that there should eventually be a Community Farm again, she would now be willing to contemplate us setting up a dedicated charitable organisation to be able to create a business plan and apply for relevant funding. 

We believe that it is because of our sustained campaign to date that we have succeeded in the yet small win of getting a community farm with animals included into the initial designs on the Beckton Parks Master Plan. Without funding though, nothing is going to happen any time soon and we would like to speed up this process so that young people, particularly those with SEND or SEMH challenges, who we know really benefit significantly, and the residents of Newham in general do not miss out on a facility when residents of almost all other London boroughs have access to at least one. The difficulty is that without the backing from the Council, even as a Community Interest Company or charity, we cannot apply for funding or create a business plan. I personally am in the privileged position currently to have the time and I have the determination to put in the necessary work and acquire the necessary skills to set up a charity but I do not personally have all the necessary expertise and need support from people who do. It's really not something we can do on our own even with the most active of farm campaigners from over the last 18 months.

We have been advised too that it might first be beneficial to accrue evidence in addition to the petition and community engagement information in the Street Space "Collaborative Vision Playbook" and on the BPMP co-create forum by again contacting as many relevant Newham organisations as possible again for a statement of support for this concept and explaining how their organisation did benefit from and could benefit from this facility. Indeed, if you represent one of these organisations, please do email us with a statement and evidence and if you think you could help us to fundraise. The diverse activity which is possible in a community farm matches with the aims and needs of many such organisations. 

Don't worry! We're not asking for money (not yet!) although partnerships with some organisations could lead to assistance with fundraising drives or links to funding providers. But on fundraising, just imagine, in principle, if for each year, every person living in Newham gave £1 (some more, some none), schools gave £1000 (or more or less), we were successful in grant application bids, we got sponsorship from businesses and livery companies, we fundraised in numerous ways, we created revenue from corporate volunteering and hosting events or bringing in other franchises such as local artists or craftspeople, we engaged more local community volunteer support and so on, we really could make a steady start at getting things running again, some quite soon, some over a longer period of time! We collectively have so many ideas, some which really need not cost too much at all! The site and much of the infrastructure is there already! It's protected land and cannot be used for development. The Council has committed to it remaining as a publicly accessible green space. But it's not publicly accessible now, and we want it to be!

The Council has already said that it is looking for or investigating charities and partnerships and it is understandable that they are concerned that previous models have not worked and are cautious about making the same mistakes again. They cannot afford to run it themselves because their financial and human resources are so stretched and pulled between so many different priorities. My personal view on this, and I have spoken to many who share this view, is that a community farm needs to be managed by a dedicated, specialist charitable organisation which nonetheless cultivates supportive partnerships with wide-ranging organisations. Other community and city farms are successful because those running it are experts in operating a farm but also never take their eye off the ball (which the Council admits to having done, in their defence because there are always so many priorities and demands on resources) and are always finding new ways of keeping the enterprise sustainable, reinventing themselves and reaching out to build new partnerships whenever necessary. They also support each other and have links with other organisations such as Social Farms and Gardens which can facilitate access to funding and training. Councils in other boroughs are often involved insofar as they own the land on which the farm is located and lease it to the charity and some also support the farm financially (possibly between 10%-25% of the revenue). They value the diverse benefits a city farm brings to so many people or, at least, are open to being reminded of these! 

The Newham-based organisations we are thinking of are:
- all Newham Early Years providers / Children's Centres including private nurseries - even some Newham Councillors we have spoken to have recalled how they or their own children visited the farm from nurseries and schools
- mainstream schools - Many included it as a low-cost, low-risk, local venue for a valuable hands-on educational visit to cover various aspects of their curriculum - I have worked in several Newham schools myself and know from colleagues and families that the farm is sorely missed.
- Education Links Education Links - Home (education-links.org) Students from this Newham alternative education provider regularly benefited from therapeutic, educational, physical and practical activities at the farm. 
- Special Schools - JFK certainly took pupils there regularly for extra-curricular, outdoor activity and for work experience
- The Home Education Group in Newham - We know that local home schoolers relied on the farm for many aspects of their children's education
- UEL - We have had tentative previous communication about the benefits of linking to numerous UEL courses and we know from our research visits to other city farms that there are very relevant educational opportunities at the further education level. 

- Bonny Downs Community Association Welcome - Bonny Downs Community Association A successful, experienced community association  offering many services and activities with many of the same aims as a community farm might have and connections with families who have previously benefited from the farm
- Ambition Aspire Achieve - Welcome to Ambition Aspire Achieve - Ambition Achieve Aspire - Home (theaaazone.com) The young people from this and other organisations can visit a farm out of Newham but one in Newham would be far more practical, accessible and inclusive. It's not feasible to take some young people so far.
- Royal Docks Learning Activity Centre (RDLAC) HOME | rdlac
- Richard House Richard House Children's Hospice We know directly from staff and families that the farm was a very welcome and enjoyable locally accessible facility for Richard House children, siblings, families and staff. It was just a short wheelchair ride / walk along the road, a rare place for a change of scene.
- Social prescribing organisations e.g. GPs, Newham Talking Therapies, MIND - We have heard from people who benefited from volunteering at or visiting the farm to help them with Social Emotional or Mental Health challenges.
- Residential homes and retirement housing - interaction with animals and connection to the outdoors and growing is proven to be socially, emotionally, mentally beneficial for elderly people and people with dementia - Beddal's Farm Court is within easy access of the farm. This home is so-named after the original Beddal's Farm in Beckton.
- Hotels - particularly in the Docklands which would benefit from having a family-friendly tourist attraction on their doorstep

Please do let us know of other organisations we could contact or of celebrities, from Newham or otherwise, who you think might be able to help to promote this cause.

We know from the co-design workshops in December 2022 with East UK East, the latest phase of the Beckton Parks Masterplan, the positive news that there is now actually a community farm on the former (current!) farm site included on their initial plans for the Beckton Parks Masterplan but, on the negative side, also that practically all interested parties among the residents who attended on 3rd December raised concern that the area allocated to accommodate the Council's commitment to an "animal offer" was much too small considering the times that we have pointed out the importance of the animal aspect for so many members of our community. We know that farms are also beneficial in terms of community growing and education about the environment etc but the benefits of interaction with animals are also widely documented. I am currently an Education Volunteer at Oasis Farm Waterloo Oasis Farm Waterloo which is partnered with the Oasis Schools in Waterloo Oasis Community Learning | Multi Academy Trust | UK and Home - Jamie's Farm (jamiesfarm.org.uk) and works on the Jamie's Farm principles. My very first observation of the young people attending programmes at the farm was that they gravitated towards the animals. The animals are predominantly what makes them excited about being there. Whatever other activities they participate in whilst there, they all enjoy some sort of interaction with the animals every time, whether stroking, holding or grooming them, cleaning them out, feeding or talking to them.

We also heard that East UK would have access to updating the BPMP co-create forum Project • Beckton Parks Masterplan (newhamco-create.co.uk), would be having feedback sessions during February and we also wonder whether there will be another update, as there was twice within the last year, to the Council Cabinet, the next one being on 7th February. We want to be sure that the feedback is representative of what residents have said.

All of us who have been very actively involved in campaigning for the farm to be reinstated are very aware and agree that the masterplan is about the regeneration of all of the green spaces within the BPMP area. I think we all agree that many basic improvements and investment are needed in the parks, not least accessible public toilets, a cafe, repairs and upgrades to the infrastructure to improve inclusion and access, that there were many good ideas included on the plans and further contributed by residents attending. Nonetheless, the farm site remains closed and the other spaces remain open. The playbook produced by Street Space which is informing East UK's designs mentions a lot how much the farm was valued but also promotes the message that the entire site is unfit for animals and to welcome visitors which we know is possibly only true of a small part whilst the infrastructure of much of it is actually in a very good condition and even relatively new!

A few of us have been volunteering on a "habitat improvement" project on Fridays since the beginning of August, initially every week for 6 weeks, then monthly from September, with now an imposed 3 month winter break even though there is further work we could be doing. We have asked that the dates could be more regular and include weekend dates to accommodate willing volunteers who work in the week and we hold out hope that this might yet be facilitated. We also submitted a Community Assembly funding application for a proposed project to rejuvenate aspects of the farm site which achieved greater support on co-create than any other project. The project was first accepted by the working party but then declined by the Council Parks' Department. So, I am personally a little reluctant to pursue the Community Assembly Project route in the next round, also because it seems to be unnecessarily bureaucratic. I seriously believe that, even predicting inevitable obstacles, it would be smoother and quicker to get the farm up and running sustainably than for it to be done via the Council machine. I continue to hope that, especially now a farm is included on the plans, the Mayor might consider it beneficial both to the Council and residents to relinquish financial and managerial responsibility of it either to an existing charity or to a purposely-founded charity supported by a consortium of existing local organisations, particularly ones which already have a history of success.

We are very keen to move this forward and afraid that, as we have often been left out of the information loop, it may progress without including what we know are the wishes of the majority, it may continue very slowly or end up never becoming a reality. It may be doomed to failure again. Nonetheless, we believe that there are enough of us to work together to bring this to a successful conclusion. Even in this economic climate, there are good news stories like the Park Lane Stables in Twickenham Park Lane Stables RDA and, I heard yesterday, Chigwell Row Girl Guide campsite is due to open again. Other City Farms including Kentish Town and Spitalfields have been threatened with closure and cuts but come back from the brink and survive. All of these places succeed in reopening through the dedication and energy of people like us. We have barely heard from anyone who does not think that the farm should be reopened and many are baffled as to why it does not reopen. Please... We can make this happen. Thank you.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Alison McLucas
On behalf of the Save Newham City Farm campaign team