Councillors reported to Ombudsman in Green Man Festival farm purchase row

Martin Shipton

Three community councillors involved in a bitter village dispute over a farm bought by the Welsh Government for the Green Man Festival have been reported to the Ombudsman, we have been told.

Nina Krauzewicz, Craig Burdon and John Jones are members of Talybont on Usk Community Council. They opposed then Economy Minister Vaughan Gething’s decision to spend £4.25m on buying Gilestone Farm on the village outskirts for activities linked to Green Man, a music festival held annually about seven miles away at the Glan Usk estate near Crickhowell.

The festival has been held there since 2003, attracting 25,000 visitors annually and generating more than £10m a year for the region’s economy.

While there were no plans to move the festival from its current location, Green Man owner Fiona Stewart devised a £23m plan to develop ancillary businesses including regenerative farming, glamping, small events and a bakery, brewery and baking school. The Welsh Government bought Gilestone Farm with the intention of leasing it to Green Man where the new activities would be based.

But local opponents as well as opposition politicians at the Senedd questioned Mr Gething’s judgement in buying the farm with public money before a detailed business plan had been submitted. The issue created bitter divisions in the local community, with allegations of bullying and intimidation.

Farming

The Welsh Government defended its decision to buy the farm, stating that it would enable sustainable development work to take place as well as farming activities and a “range of other things that would allow them to keep the operation in Wales.”

Subsequently, however, the Welsh Government was left with egg on its face when the project was scrapped after it was established that rare nesting birds had returned to the immediate area of Gilestone Farm for the first time in hundreds of years.

It meant that some of the activities planned by Green Man would no longer be able to go ahead because they would entail large numbers of people disturbing the protected ospreys. It is understood that Green Man now takes the view that its project cannot go ahead at the farm.

Nevertheless, ill-feeling remains in Talybont and complaints have, we understand, been made about the three community councillors. The complaints concern allegations that they had conflicts of interest and, in the case of Cllr Burdon, that he brought the council into disrepute.

In the case of Cllr Krauzewicz, the allegation is that she was not only a vocal critic of the Gilestone project, but that she financially contributed to a campaign against it.

She donated £50 to the campaign, commenting on the fundraising site justgiving.com: “The Welsh Government have rightly declared a nature and biodiversity emergency. The Gilestone Farm project will drive off rare and protected species. We need to know how they will address this conflict now.”

It is therefore argued that she had prejudicial interests and shouldn’t have taken part in discussions on the matter at community council meetings.

Cllr Burdon is said to have wrongly asserted that he was acting in an official capacity when verifying a survey that claimed a large majority of local residents was against the Gilestone project.

The council issued a statement that said: “The community council wants it made clear that the community council has no involvement with the [anti-Gilestone project] Usk Valley Conservation Group, and that no community councillor is a member of UVCG.

“Councillor Craig Burdon’s role in verifying the poll was carried out in a personal capacity as a member of the public. He did not carry out the verification as a community councillor. At no time did the community council provide him with the authority to undertake this role on its behalf.”

Cllr Jones, who now chairs the community council, was another critic of the project before becoming a councillor. He and his business partner claimed it would affect their local holiday cottage business, as no one would want to go there when events were being held due to the noise.

He was also very critical of the scheme on Facebook prior to becoming a councillor, incorrectly claiming that the Green Man festival would be moving to Gilestone Farm.

Complainants and those complained about are warned by the Ombudsman not to comment while a case is under consideration.