Allotment holders have slammed council plans to rent out an Ashford site for mass gravel extraction after officials claimed the area was not in demand – despite closing waiting lists a year ago.

Devastated Philip Bold, who has had his Shortwood East allotment for 20 years, but is being forced out of the land next to his mother’s gravestone, has blasted officials who have claimed the allotments are disused.

For Spelthorne Council to get planning permission for the extraction work, to be done by H Streeters Ltd over three years and net the council £850,000 in rent, it must prove the allotments are surplus.

Also Surrey County Council must approve the proposals, before any work starts on the land.

Campaigners have complained tirelessly to Spelthorne Council about the proposals, which would see the extraction next to Ashford Park Primary School, claiming excess dust and noise would cause breathing difficulties for children.

Mr Bold, 55, of Windsor Drive, said: “This allotment has tremendous sentimental value for me. My mother is buried in the cemetery nearby and we have worked this land tirelessly for 20 years.

“My allotment has always been well maintained and looked after and in 2005 I was surprised to get a letter from the council saying it was not cultivated and asked me to leave.

“They did admit they had made a mistake but I find it very convenient. Not long after it became public knowledge the council intended to rent the land for gravel extraction. I make no accusations but it is very covenient.

“I have grown organic food on that land for 20 years and I don’t want to move. How can they say these allotments are surplus? If you contact the council you can see there are 40 people waiting for an allotment.”

Landscaper Garry Key, who lives near the area, said: “I applied for an allotment at Shortwood East a year-and-a-half ago and was told I was number three, then I asked later in the year and was told all applications were closed. It’s just wrong.”

A council spokesman said: “The Shortwood East site has, for many years, had very few plot holders due to lack of interest, mainly because of the inaccessibility of the site within the common land.

“It is correct that we are no longer letting plots at the Shortwood East site as we are shortly to be making an application to the Secretary of State to deem this site surplus to requirements.

“We do not want to inconvenience new holders of plots by having to move them when they have cultivated the site if the application is successful. The council has a duty under the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 to provide allotments where, in the council’s opinion, there is a demand. The provisions of the act do not state that specific sites or plots needed to be made available.”

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