Farm hopes to grow with plans for community barn

People behind a community farm hope it will continue to grow with plans to build a community barn.

CoFarm, on the edge of Coldham's Common in Cambridge, was created by Gavin Shelton five years ago to "rethink" climate change, biodiversity loss and health inequalities.

He said the community barn would not only be used to help with the practical running of it, but would also act as a community space.

A public consultation is expected to be held in October, before a planning application for the work is formally submitted in December.

Since it was created, Mr Shelton said more than 2,000 people had worked on the site and it had donated more than £125,000 worth of produce to food hubs across the city.

"If you look at the drivers behind biodiversity loss and climate change, you realise our food system really has the biggest impact on biodiversity and also has the biggest impact on climate change," he said.

"If we reorganised our food systems, it really is key to tackling the big issues of our day, like climate change."

Mr Shelton said while helping the environment, the farm aimed to improve health and wellbeing by promoting healthy eating and having people work at the site.

Tom Foggin, director at RHPartnership architects, told a Cambridge City Council meeting it was a "quite ambitious project".

He said the building would have a "minimal impact on the environment".

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said that during the planning committee meeting Labour's Katie Thornburrow said councillors would need more detailed information about how the development could be allowed to be built on green belt land.

Naomi Bennett, Green councillor, asked if discussions had taken place with the highways team at Cambridgeshire County Council regarding the impact of creating a new access to the farm which she said was in a "very busy corner" of Barnwell Road.

However, Mr Shelton said the farm was working with the team on the plans and said proposed parking at the site would also be for blue badge holders to ensure it was accessible.

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