THE largest opposition group on Herefordshire Council is ready to take legal action against a decision to sell off the county's smallholdings estate.

It’s Our County announced this week it will act to challenge the lawfulness of the cabinet’s decision to sell the council-owned farms estate.

The group say they have received specialist legal advice that the case for judicial review of the decision process could still be made and they plan to launch a crowdfunding scheme to help raise the amount needed to begin legal action.

Group leader, Councillor Anthony Powers, said: "It’s clear that the decision to dispose of the county farms was not just controversial but potentially unlawful.

"We have challenged the process at every stage and are not going to let go now. The decision to sell off all these farms has angered so many people in the county and beyond. There will be a chance now for everyone to pledge support."

The Hereford Times reported in February how the council had been accused of a 'lack of transparency' after hiding parts of a report compiled by its consultants Fisher German which recommended that the authority should retain some of the county's smallholding estates.

The report was provided to the council’s scrutiny committee and its task and finish group ahead of the cabinet decision in a heavily redacted form that even hid the report’s recommendations from public view.

A Herefordshire Council spokesman said the initial draft Fisher German report was incomplete and never finalised, which is why the report was not relied upon by the council in any decision making.

However, following a complaint from the National Farmers Union (NFU), Herefordshire Council was forced by the Information Commissioner’s Office to publish the Fisher German report with all but its ‘commercially confidential’ elements finally un-redacted.

It revealed that the council was advised to sell off only part of its smallholdings estate and to “continue to provide a means for first generation farmers to enter the industry" – not to sell the entire estate as it decided to do.

Cllr Liz Harvey, a current member and former vice-chairman of the council's General Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: "Tenant farmers, councillors and the public can now see that the council buried the report and its recommendation of a partial sale only, and hid this advice from the scrutiny process.

“This breaches access to information rules in the council’s constitution and opens the way for legal challenge."

Links to the crowd funding website, Crowd Justice, and how to donate will be available from the group's website at itsourcounty.org and its social media page.