ALLOTMENT holders want to form an action group to fight off controversial plans to sell their site to developers, the Advertiser can reveal.
Mole Valley District Council, which owns the plots in Barnett Wood Lane, in Leatherhead, is inviting offers from developers interested in building on the land.
The 103 allotments could be moved to the other side of the Leatherhead bypass, and a group of current users will meet tonight (Thursday) to look to form a group dedicated to fighting the plans.
Chloe Kirk, who is among a group who organised the meeting, said the outcome of the summit is likely to see the formation of the Barnett Wood Lane Allotments Association.
"That is certainly what we are hoping to achieve," she said.
"It will form the main part of the agenda and when that happens we hope we can be more organised in stopping this going ahead.
"We also hope to appoint people with jobs, for example someone to look into the site's history, someone to liaise with the council and someone to submit Freedom of Information requests. It is about organising ourselves to be more efficient in fighting off the move and keeping the allotments where they should be. We are hopeful that in setting up this group we can do that." The current allotment site measures 9.5 acres, and could potentially be combined with two neighbouring plots to create a 32.2 acre site to be used for housing or retail.
The new allotment site proposed by the council, which is currently empty, is green belt land and much larger than the current plot at 22.3 acres.
None of the sites are currently designated for development in the Local Plan and if a developer is chosen to take the sites forward, they will need to address "various planning and highways considerations" and relocate the Barnett Wood Lane allotments.
Ms Kirk added: "Hopefully we can get a good number of people to turn up. The council has kindly sent out letters to all allotment holders to inform them of the meeting.
"It is obviously a big issue affecting a lot of people and it is time we got ourselves together and fought this."
The meeting will take place tonight (Thursday) at BFree Café in Kingston Road, Leatherhead at 8pm.
