Farmland set to go under the hammer

Farms owned by Nottinghamshire County Council are about to be auctioned off as it seeks to generate money to off-set cuts.

The farmland — three of 25 smallholdings owned by the council — is at East Bridgford, Whatton and Rolleston.

They will be sold by Savills at auction at Nottingham Racecourse a week today.

Glebe Farm, Kneeton Road, East Bridgford, where the tenant is negotiating with the council to vacate the lease, has a guide price of £1.2m.

It includes a two-storey detached three-bedroom farmhouse, and farm buildings with grain storage.

The tenant, who did not want to be named, has farmed the 168 acres of arable land for 30 years.

He said: “It will be sad to go. I was born to farming but the county council, like everyone, is short of money.

“This is a change in their policy. The council was always content to take the rent on these farms but times change.

“Everything is changing in little old England and not all for the better.”

Lot 23, with a guide price of £950,000, is Whatton Lodge Farm, Grantham Road.

The freehold is for sale with vacant possession from September 28, with the tenant granted holdover of some of the land until November 28.

There is around 114 acres of grassland, a two-storey detached four-bedroom farmhouse, a range of covered cattle yards and other buildings.

Lot 51 is around 138 acres, let to Mr Frank Mitchell. The land at Swillow Lane, Rolleston, has a guide price of £440,000 with the tenancy remaining in place but subject to rent review in 2013.

The council said no records exist as to why it acquired the land in the 1920s, 1960s and 1980s, yet it says none were donated, bequeathed or gifted to it.

Mr Reg Adair, cabinet member for finance and property, said: “We are carrying out a review to decide which smallholding properties that we own can be sold to raise funds for important building and maintenance projects for the benefit of residents.

“We have so far identified three smallholding properties which are due to be sold by auction in September and are all subject to current tenancies.

“These properties have no redevelopment potential as they lie in open countryside.”

Rob Crocker, auctioneer and director at Savills Nottingham, said: “We are already seeing strong interest from a wide range of purchasers across Nottingham and the Midlands.”

Other lots include residential and commercial properties and some listed buildings in Nottingham being sold by the city council.