Greenmeadow Community Farm has a special place in the hearts of so many people in our communities. I know that well, having enjoyed countless visits when my children were young.

Yet we know the huge funding pressures facing local services all too well, after 13 years of austerity forcing so many cutbacks and making budgets so difficult to balance.

So councillors had a tough decision to make on Tuesday, as we listened to the report on the investment needed to secure a positive future for the farm.

Councillors had a clear choice – either option A, to invest the money needed to regenerate the farm and re-open it, or option B, to close the facility.

I supported option A and was pleased to secure unanimous support from councillors across the chamber.

I supported the farm because the plans put together, with the help of experts in visitor attractions who have worked on the Eden Project, The Wave, Kew Gardens and other successful ventures, are really exciting.

The plans can be a key part of our work on improving wellbeing and appreciation of the outdoors. They can be part of telling the story of food production, and of sustainability, nature and the environmental challenge that we face responding to climate change and the loss of biodiversity. They can form a key facility for our schools to take their children along as part of their curriculum. Most of all though, they can result in a fun place to visit that will have people returning again and again.

I was especially pleased that councillors from every part of Torfaen supported the investment. All too often we’re tempted to divide along geographical lines, arguing for which place gets what, rather than thinking of the whole county.

I believe the community farm can form an important part of our wider strategy for attractions across Torfaen, alongside our World Heritage town of Blaenavon, our parks, canal, museum and more.

That both gives local people more to do and attracts visitors and money into our area – a win-win for all our communities, rather than something that should divide them.

A big thank you to all those who have helped work up these plans, and to those in the community who have supported the farm. We’ll receive regular updates as the plans progress, then it’s over to us all when the farm re-opens and we can give it the support it deserves.