Friends of Doonies to take over running of rare breeds farm

01/08/08

Aberdeen City Council has agreed to enter into a six month transitional services agreement with the Friends of Doonies (FoD) to allow the charity to take over the running of the city’s popular rare breeds farm.

The Urgent Business Committee agreed to allow FoD to run Doonies Farm until the business plan, lease, and formal agreements have been finalised and implemented.

However, the committee also agreed that the council should take immediate action to put the contingency plan for the closure of Doonies Farm in place, sell the stock, redeploy the staff, and rent out the ground on the event that the FoD are unable to pay the full running costs of the farm in any one month.

It was agreed that the FoD should take over the running of the farm as soon as possible.

The move will save Aberdeen City Council £100,000 in the financial year 2008/9 and £130,000 each following year. The land and buildings will be leased to FoD at a market value rent. The Doonies Farm vehicles and equipment are to be sold to FoD at market value.

The FoD’s business plan proposes the introduction of a visitor centre to increase visitor numbers and enhance the facility.
The group has ambitious plans to increase the number of visitors to the farm by almost 43% from 14,000 to 20,000, and expects to generate a net spend of £3 per visitor to generate an additional income of £60,000 in the first year.

If you have any queries regarding this, or any other news story, please contact Aberdeen City Council on: 01224 522000.