Organic farm fails to hit targets

A £1m organic farm attraction in Devon has failed to reach its initial financial targets.

Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust opened Occombe Farm this year with the help of a £500,000 bank loan guaranteed by Torbay Council.

But a report to the town's mayor Nick Bye says the business plan was "too optimistic" and the shop and cafe will not break even for at least a year.

The council agreed to underwrite the project until the end of next year.

The trust received funding for the other half of the project from the government's Rural Enterprise Scheme as well as donations from local businesses and charitable trusts.

As well as the working farm, there is a nature reserve and education centre with farm shop and traditional butchery, cafe, organic craft bakery and nature trail.

The site was once earmarked by Torbay Council as an 18-hole golf course until the early 1990s when English Nature declared the area a Site of Special Scientific Interest, protecting it from development.