3. Farmers forced off county farms

Devastated farmers forced out of their home as Somerset County Council sells off valuable properties
The human interest story behind a massive property sell-off

Originally published: April 3, 2018

A farmer has accused county councillors of "the economic and social cleansing of the land" as she prepares to leave the farm she has run for 16 years.
Sue Osborne has farmed at Oxenford Farm in Dowlish Wake near Ilminster with her husband David since 2002, taking it on a 16-year lease from Somerset County Council.

The council has been selling off its county farms since October 2010, following a review of its estate farming policy.
Unable to buy the land, the Osbornes and others in their position could soon see their livelihoods taken away.
Mrs Osborne, who also serves as a South Somerset district councillor, said that the council's decision would have a terrible impact on her family and the local community.
Read the full story here.

---

The genesis of this article, which came early in my tenure as a local democracy reporter, came from a phone call from Claire Hart, who runs Grass Roots PR. She was acquainted with Sue Osborne and was looking for someone to run a story about Somerset County Council's county farms, which were in the process of being sold off and broken up. She provided background information, and I made contact with Sue to visit her in person.

I decided it would be worth my time to visit on the ground for two reasons: firstly, to obtain the best possible pictures and perhaps video footage of the site, and secondly, to familiarise myself in detail with how a county farm operates. This was a completely new subject matter for me, and Sue allowed me around an hour of her time to explain the situation she was in - as well as offering a few juicy lines about the county council which we incorporated into the article. From there it was a simple matter of putting her comments to the council's press team for a response.

The piece received a good response on our social media pages and led to a number of follow-ups, including a profile of other farms being sold off in May (here) and the auction of the Osborne's land in late-September (here). The wire copy I filed also received interest from BBC Somerset, who ran their own feature on the Osbornes a few weeks afterwards. Whenever I am struggling to make rural stories appeal to a wide audience, or to bring broad council policies to life, I come back to this article and use it as a guide for how to balance information and accessibility.