Interim managers have been appointed by the Charity Commission to run College Farm Trust, a city farm charity it is investigating.

Its running will be overseen by Frances Coulson and Robert Paterson of Wedlake Bell LLP.

They have been tasked with securing the charity’s property and assets, recruiting members and calling an AGM where trustees will be elected.

A statutory inquiry into the charity was launched in August last year looking at trustee decision making and management of the Finchley, London based farm.

This was launched amid a disagreement between the charity’s trustees and the farm’s tenant farmer Chris Ower, whose family have farmed the site for almost 50 years.

The farm had been closed to the public since 2001 due to a foot and mouth disease outbreak.

Ower said last year that he was keen to reopen the farm to the public but was unable to carry out repairs needed without approval from the charity as his landlord. He claimed that instead the trustees “want to build houses on the farm”.

The charity register shows that the last set of financial accounts were submitted nine years ago. This shows its income for the year ending August 2016 was £10,000, while its spending was £6,330.

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