'I am not going away quietly and will keep fighting for Bristol’s last working farm'

A GoFundMe page was set up to help Catherine Withers, who lives at Bristol’s last working farm in Bedminster Down, raise £10,000 towards a judicial review, and it has already collected nearly half that amount in donations from supporters.

Last year, the council’s development control committee granted planning permission for the expansion of South Bristol Cemetery onto some of the farmland, which is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest [SNCI] and home to protected species such as dormice and skylarks.

The decision was endorsed by ex-mayor Marvin Rees’s Labour cabinet in January which allocated £2.4m for the project, a sum included in the annual budget the following month.

Greens, who became the largest party in the chamber at May’s local elections and now lead the new committee system administration, opposed the plans before the polls because of concerns about damage to wildlife and refused to vote for the budget.

Council leader Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) last month reiterated the group’s commitment to protecting SNCIs amid confusion over its position on Yew Tree Farm.

He said senior officers were carrying out an investigation into the decision-making process that led to the proposals and that the report would go to the public health and communities committee, which is responsible for burial grounds and cemeteries, in October.

But Catherine says the lack of progress to protect the farm from becoming a graveyard had forced her to take urgent action.

She said: “I’m so angry. It’s like I’ve been led down a dark tunnel by people who haven’t got good intentions.

“It’s got to the point where I can’t take that anymore and I have to take legal action.

“I don’t feel secure that enough progress is being made.

“If the Greens let any development go ahead on the farm, they will be a four-year flash in the pan and won’t be reelected.

“Expanding the cemetery is not a vote-winner.

“I am not going away quietly and I will keep fighting for the farm.

“We are in a disastrous situation and we have to protect what we have here.”

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She said she was fearful that a compromise would be proposed where only part of the SNCI would be dug up but that this would amount to the Greens’ failing to honour their manifesto pledge.

Catherine said: “We have one of the rarest mammals in the UK, dormice, but apparently they’re fair game for the council.

“This is the only place in the county where they are.

“We have more swallows here than ever, which means we have more insects than ever, whereas levels at other sites are down.

“The Greens have not tried to lobby any councillors from other parties to get their support to stop this and I’m left to do that.

“It’s crackers. Greens who were elected are amazing people for transport, they’re going to be radical, but they’re not quite as positive with our ecological emergency and I’m terrified about that.

“I am badgering them to work with us, not against us, for the greater good.”

She said would do everything in her power to protect the farm.

Bristol City Council declined to comment on the threat of legal action.