Young farmers descended on Torquay for weekend of fun (From South West Farmer)

Young farmers descended on Torquay for weekend of fun

12:26pm Monday 8th March 2010 in Farming News

Well over 1,400 Young Farmers from the South West’s six counties travelled to Torquay at the weekend to take part in a host of competitions, and activities, including the headline ‘Question Time’ style debate and highly contested SW Drama finals.

The weekend was a resounding success. It was officially started with a welcome from Martin Hodge, Chair of Torbay Council at the Livermead Cliff Hotel.

Martin stayed to listen to the Question Time debate alongside 200 guests, including the SW chairman of Young Farmers, the president and chairman of the National Young Farmers movement and many other honoured guests.

The debate panel included the government’s Rural Advocate Dr Stuart Burgess, the RDA Executive Director Andrew Slade, the Chairman of Mole Valley, Graham Cock, Nick Chase Head of Policy and Research at ACRE and Ed Akerman a Wiltshire Young Farmer. The panel was chaired by John Lee, Chairman of the South West Sustainable Food and Farming Board. The hot topics discussed included jobs for young people in rural areas, house prices and the impact that second home owners have on local people across the South West area. The weekend concluded at the Palace Theatre, Paignton with the SW Drama final competition. The winning performance was from Devon with the other trophies for sports and public speaking competitions spread across the counties.

The Devon Federation of Young Farmers were proud to be named overall champions for the SWA weekend. And to finish, a cheque was presented to Torbay Young Carers; this money had been raised during the weekend, Kim Merriot who collected the money on behalf of Torbay Young Carers said, ‘we are very grateful to Young Farmers, this money will go towards young people in Torbay having a well earned break from their caring responsibilities’.