Save Our Allotments!

Lutterworth Town Council is united in opposing the plan of Harborough District Council to sell off the De Verdon Road Allotments land for development. Councillors are angered that the proposed sale appears to be simply a money-raising exercise that would involve Lutterworth losing a valuable local asset.

The District Council has offered a new allotment site on Moorbarns Lane but Lutterworth Councillors agree with the allotment holders that the new site is completely unsuitable. Town Councillors have held several meetings with Harborough in recent months in an effort to convince them that the plan is misguided, having seen no evidence of a financial plan being in place nor of any benefits that Lutterworth would accrue from the sale.

The land is owned by Harborough District Council and has been rented by Lutterworth Town Council for the last 30 years to provide allotments for local residents. There are 74 allotments and all are in use and there is a waiting list. The current lease expired at the end of March and, so far, the District Council has offered a temporary arrangement that would only last until the new site is ready which could mean less than a year. The De Verdon Road site is the main allotment site in the town with the much smaller Crescent Road facility as the only other allotments.

On behalf of the Town Council, the Allotment working party (the four Councillors for Orchard Ward, David Gair, Geraldine Robinson, Martin Willey and Bradley Woodward) issued a joint statement saying ‘The Town Council is unanimous in its determination to fight the District Council’s plan. We want to keep the allotments where they are. Most of the allotment users live locally to the current site and they tell us that they would find the new site unsuitable. Access to the Moorbarns site would either involve a car journey or a journey that would be hazardous on foot, cycle or mobility scooter. The site is remote and this makes it unsafe for users and a soft target for vandals. In any case, a new site would mean starting from scratch after spending years getting their current plots how they want them. For the sake of the current and future users of the allotments, it is essential that the District Council thinks again.’

The Councillors went on to say ‘The Town Council wants to support people growing their own produce and we fear that many allotment holders would not transfer to the new site. We believe that the District Council sees this as a way of raising money but that the funds will not bring any significant benefit to the Town. We believe that selling the site would mean losing an important local asset and is not in the interests of Lutterworth.’

The four Town Councillors for the Orchard Ward, Councillors Gair, Robinson, Woodward and Willey at the De Verdon Road site.

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