A prospective parliamentary candidate is calling on Herefordshire Council to allow residents to have a say on how the proceeds from the sale of the county’s smallholdings are spent.

County councillor Ellie Chowns, who is the Green Party candidate for the North Herefordshire constituency, called for a public consultation on the council’s capital budget spending.

The council announced at a meeting in May a projected total income of £46m from the sales of the publicly-owned farms.

The Bishop’s Frome & Cradley councillor, who also raised concerns over the lack of a public say on capital spending at a full council meeting during the summer, called on last week’s general scrutiny committee to consider her suggestions.

“There needs to be more public discussion on how we spend that money, particularly the family silver of the farms which were sold off,” Cllr Chowns said. “It would be helpful to have more clarity and more consultation on the items in the capital budget. Capital is where we have wriggle room.”

Council chief finance officer Andrew Lovegrove said a summary detailing the proceeds of the sale of smallholdings would be produced once the final farm sale is completed.

He said there was still one farm sale outstanding due to a number of legal issues.

A total of 59 individual lots were marketed with a total guide price of £37m.

The council says they were offered to the open market to achieve best value for money and generate funding for council services.

As of May this year, the total sale costs which includes agent fees, legal fees and tenants’ statutory payments are £2,346,000.

The council paid out £1.8m in tenants’ compensation, £388,000 in agent fees, £150,000 in legal fees and £8,000 in tenants’ support grant.