Green Man: Watchdog asked to probe farm purchase with £4.25m of taxpayers money

Wales' public spending watchdog has been asked to investigate the Welsh government's purchase of a farm for Green Man music festival.

Ministers have been criticised for buying the farm without a business plan from the festival, which says it does not plan to move there.

It comes as the Senedd's Tory leader said the the circumstances around the purchase were "shadowy".

The Welsh government declined to respond.

It follows an exchange at a House of Commons committee where the managing director of the festival Fiona Stewart declined to say whether she was asked to provide a business plan.

BBC Wales previously reported that the company intends to run the site as a farm, and expand its health and sustainability work with Cardiff University there.

For now the land at Talybont on Usk is owned by the Welsh government, which is in negotiations over leasing or possibly selling the land to Green Man, which has been described as a "trusted partner" by First Minister Mark Drakeford.

He said: "We are working with a company that the Welsh Government has known and worked alongside over an extended period of time as it has grown to be amongst the fifth most successful of its kind anywhere in the United Kingdom."

Last week Vaughan Gething said negotiations were ongoing with the annual festival, and officials were awaiting a business plan from the company.

That prompted calls for the Senedd's public accounts and public administration committee to take a look at the plans, which has now referred the matter to the auditor general Adrian Crompton to investigate.

Mr Crompton is responsible for examining how Welsh public bodies spend taxpayers money.

Asked about the issue by MPs this week, the festival's managing director Fiona Stewart said Green Man was "not moving" to Gilestone Farm.

But she told the House of Commons' Welsh Affairs Select Committee, she couldn't "really talk about it to be honest" and asked MPs to "move on from that subject".

Pressed further by Aberconwy Conservative MP Robin Millar, she said: "The Green Man as a brand is a multitude of things. Its training, its food and beverage, its events, its climate change, its science.

"I think the idea going forward is that we would be developing those things on that new space."

Later, Ruth Jones, Labour MP for Newport West, asked Ms Stewart if her company was asked to provide a business plan to the Welsh government, prompting the managing director to question why she was being asked.

"I understood that I was here to talk about the international impact of Wales abroad. I wasn't understood I was brought here to talk about my own business matters to you."

Ms Jones said the matter was of interest to the committee.

Ms Stewart did not directly answer Ms Jones' question, but said the investment - which has not gone directly to Green Man - was "incredible" and said ministers were "getting behind success and culture in a major way".

In a statement Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies said: "While I am immensely proud of Green Man's cultural and economic footprint, the circumstances surrounding the Welsh government's purchase of Gilestone Farm remain shadowy.

"It's clear that Labour ministers have purchased this farm, using some £4.25m of taxpayer money, in an exclusive arrangement with Green Man, without any business case to speak of.

"This is not how public money should be spent."

On Thursday the public accounts committee's chairman Mark Isherwood said concerns had been raised with him that "raise questions around the Welsh government's approach to property management including purpose, value for money and decision making".

He said the auditor general "will provide us with a summary of his initial findings. We will then agree how to approach scrutinising the Welsh government on these issues after the Whitsun recess."

Green Man festival declined to comment. The auditor general's organisation Audit Wales has been asked to comment.