Liability cost on leasing a meadow

[Tigertim]

Hello, after a meeting with Hull CC our group have being asked to set up a community interest company with the view to managing a site called Priory Meadows on the boundary of Hull The council are favourable to lease us the land however it was pointed out to us today by our local Yorkshire Wildlife Trust person that they would be liability issues.

Do we need specific land management insurance for this and how much is it liable to cost for 10 ha or is it entirely down to the disgression of the council how this is set up ?

[Yvette]

Sorry but here comes the normal response- it depends. But if it is a formal lease highly likely. Most insurance is reasonably priced. Can you get someone with a legal background to help you or pay for advice. This is not a difficult process but you do need to cover all bases and someone with the right background will manage this easily. They will be able to read the lease, set up the CIC and research the correct insurance. You also need to look into the type of corporated body you choose to be and what liabilities you will have as a trustee, if any. Worth getting this right from the get go. I suspect you will also have to have some basic processes and procedures in place- like H&S and Safeguarding. Again all straightforward to those with a bit of experience in the field.
Although the Council are likely to be highly prescriptive in this process do push back and negotiate any bits of the lease that don’t work and please bear in mind many Council documents are quite poorly drafted and the staff understandably have little experience or understanding of this minor aspect of their remit. And you are doing them an enormous favour! You have negotiating power.

[Tigertim]

Hi Yvette,

Yes it would be a formal lease, we do have a template for that as the council leased out 2 of the Priory Meadows fields a year ago to Hull4Heroes where it's written into the agreement that they have to work with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, we would want something identical except a 6 month grace period in regard the liabilities until we get SFI funding and can afford to pay the insurance.

We haven't got the money to pay for any legal advice but the CIC paperwork is lined up, again just waiting to gather the funds and signitures.

I did do a online quote for insurance and it worked out at £11 per ha which is reasonable, i am waiting back on another quote from someone Plantlife recommended.

The sticking points are we don't have any money behind us until the first SFI payment would come in, hence we would have to work on the council on getting some time before we take on the liability aspect of any lease.

[Yvette]

That sounds like you have everything in place except initial funding - a cake sale? Seriously there are quite a lot of local funds to access - have you tried asking your local councillor - sometimes they have concessionary funds. I would definitely not take on anything without the necessary elements in place - the responsibility of running a space like that has a lot of public liability and h&s issues. You could always start looking after the place as volunteers to the Council where the legal responsibility rests with them.

[Tigertim]

Yes it's just that initial funding, once the CIC is formed i can look around for some low level green fund to get us going ? talking it through with our local YWT representive who is heavily involved i think our best bet is to push the council to allow us a period of grace where they have the liability on there side for approx the first 6 months until SFI funding starts coming through. With any undertaking like this it's one step at a time.