Mixed views over plans to move allotments in Leatherhead
8:36am Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News By Alice Foster, Reporter
Jenny Day at a drop-in session in Ashtead over the proposed development
Allotment holders and residents shared their views last week over plans to move allotments to make way for development in Leatherhead.
More than 30 people attended a drop-in session on the proposals hosted by Mole Valley Council at Ashtead Baptist Church on Thursday.
Green Hearts campaigner Jenny Day said: "I think it’s absolutely disgusting. The site they have offered us is an insult to an allotment holder.
"It will be unsafe and is in the middle of nowhere."
Ms Day described the current allotment site as the best soil in Leatherhead.
She said: "150 years of cultivation and that’s what they want to concrete over.
"We have never needed an allotment association before but we need one now to fight this."
Meanwhile Jane Murphy, whose home overlooks the proposed relocation site, said building allotments there contrasted with efforts to conserve Rye Meadows round the corner.
She said: "It’s in total contrast because this is all going to be beautiful and a conservation area.
"And here you are taking away a load of beautiful natural land and turning it into a shanty town.
There is also a security issue with people hanging around."
Her husband Danny Murphy said: "There’s no benefit for me because of increased traffic and people and with that comes a security risk."
