Stonebridge City Farm and famous resident Kevin the tortoise struggling with rising energy costs

Kevin the tortoise at Stonebridge City Farm.
Kevin the tortoise is regularly maintained by volunteers.
By Henry Green

Stonebridge City Farm is appealing for donations as the farm’s costs  for supporting hundreds of animals rise past £1,300 a day.

The farm, created in St Ann’s in 1980, is a charity running on donations and providing training and education for the community.

It says rising costs of maintenance on the farm and the struggle to fight for funding means it’s again appealing for urgent help as winter approaches.

Stonebridge is popular with families – Kevin the tortoise is famously one of the most-loved animals, but comes with his own considerable energy costs.

The red-footed tortoise, originally from South America, has lived on the farm since 2009.

Kevin has special requirements meaning his room is heated to around 30 degrees Celsius.

Grace Devey outside of the turtles shed.
Grace Devey has worked at the farm since February 2022.

Stonebridge City Farm’s marketing events coordinator Grace Devey said: “We do have to spend a lot more on Kevin’s heating bills during the winter months.

“We worked out a year ago that his cost were about £150 a month. We haven’t done that cost recently so it [Kevin’s maintenance costs] has almost certainly went up.

“That doesn’t include any emergency vet bills or anything like that so his costs do grow significantly,” she added.

Grace said: “We need to keep on top of all the equipment the maintenance of that and then just refreshing his garden.

“It’s about £1,300 a day just to run the farm and that has almost certainly gone up recently.”

“It is almost like the opposite of what we need, in the summer when everything is a little bit cheaper we have loads of visitors on site, so it is not as bad.

“But in the winter when things get more expensive, the amount of visitors decreases so much so it is a bit of a balancing act,” she added.

The farm on Stonebridge Road in St Anne’s is open seven days a week from 10am until 4.15 pm.