The Charity Commission has appointed two interim managers to a charity that manages a suburban farm amid concerns about trustee decision-making.
The College Farm Trust was registered with the regulator in 1999 to manage and conserve College Farm, a Grade II listed community farm in Finchley, north London.
The charity was placed under statutory inquiry in August and the regulator said today it had appointed Frances Coulson and Robert Paterson of Wedlake Bell LLP to undertake certain duties in line with the charity’s governing document.
Coulson and Paterson will be tasked with securing the charity’s property and assets, recruiting members and calling an annual general meeting at which trustees will be elected.
The inquiry, which remains ongoing, was opened to examine trustees’ compliance with their legal duties, governance and management of the charity, whether there has been any unauthorised trustee benefit, risks to charity property and any misconduct or mismanagement.
College Farm had to close in 2001 due to restrictions relating to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, and according to local campaign group the College Farm Action Group it was never reopened to the public.
According to the group’s website, the College Farm Trust was removed from the charity register in February 2018 as it had not operated for charitable purposes since the Trust purchased the land in 2006.
A separate website, Saving College Farm, alleged the trustees wanted to build houses on the farm and had no interest in seeing the site reopened to the public.