ALLOTMENT holders in Lutterworth have been given a reprieve in their fight to keep their De Verdon Road plots.
Harborough District Council was due on Monday to decide whether or not to buy land in Moorbarns Lane as a replacement site for the allotments.
Instead the authority agreed to enter into discussions with the owners of the Moorbarns Lane site in a b
id to extend an option to buy the land.
The district council has an option to buy the Moorbarns Lane site but this is due to expire on September 20.
However, the authority is now hoping to extend the option period but at the same time try and obtain planning permission to change the use of the De Verdon Road allotment site to housing.
Cllr Alistair Swatridge, who was elected leader of Harborough District Council at Monday’s meeting, said: “My personal feeling is that council would be wrong to recommend the purchase of land without first obtaining planning permission.
“It is my personal opinion that failure to obtain such permission could have a dramatic effect on the land value.
“I believe this is an unacceptable political risk.”
Cllr Swatridge added that there could be a considerable risk to the authority if the De Verdon Road site failed to earn planning permission.
Despite the news, some Lutterworth Town Councillors urged caution at their own meeting on Tuesday.
Cllr Martin Willey said: “I was hoping that with a change of leader there would be what I can’t resist calling, a ‘change of heart’.
“But rather than having a major reconsideration of rejecting the whole thing what we could be moving towards is a better-prepared and better-argued case to move the allotment holders.”
Other town councillors pointed out that Lutterworth Town Council had not paid its rent for the forthcoming year and allotment holders could be ‘kicked off’ the plot at any time.
But Cllr David Gair said: “The law states they must be given 12 months notice. If they are moved off then Harborough District Council is preventing us from carrying out our statutory duty of providing allotments.”
Town councillors agreed to defer any more decisions on the allotment until their October meeting.
The full article contains 373 words and appears in Lutterworth Mail newspaper.
