The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into the decision making of trustees at College Farm Trust.

The investigation into the Finchley, London, city farm charity will look at trustees’ compliance with their legal duties.

Their governance and management of the farm, which has been closed to the public since 2001 due to a foot and mouth disease outbreak, will also be probed.

Whether there has been any unauthorised trustee benefit, risk to charity property or misconduct or mismanagement by trustees are among other concerns being looked at.

The investigation has been launched amid a disagreement between the farm’s tenant
farmer Chris Ower, whose family have farmed the site since 1976, and the charity’s trustees.

In a statement on his Saving College Farm website, Ower says that he is keen to reopen the farm to the public but is unable to carry out repairs needed without approval from the charity as his landlord.

He also claims that while the charity was set up to “preserve this historic farm for public education and enjoyment” the trustee board “has changed” and “the present trustees want to build houses on the farm”.

Ower’s statement also says that he is legally the occupier as a protected agricultural tenant of the farm, which was built in 1883 “as a showpiece for the diary industry”.

His website also includes a plea for donations to support the animals on the farm, which cost £450 a month to feed.

Animals on the farm include cows, pigs, goats, donkeys, chickens, a pony and guinea pigs.

The last accounts submitted by the charity to the Charity Commission are for the financial year ending August 2016. This showed it had an income of £10,042 and spent £6,326.

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