Princes Risborough town council will consult residents on whether or not to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on allotments after receiving a petition from just eight people.

A petition with eight signatures was handed to the town council, asking for them to provide allotments within the parish.

Four of the signatures on the petition came from the same household, but the council has a duty to investigate the possibility of buying an allotment site.

After initial investigations by the council, the closest land that could be purchased is 1.7 miles away from the parish and would cost a staggering £250,000 to buy, as well as a further cost of around £60,000 to convert the ground to make it suitable for allotments.

If the cost was added to the precept, it would work out at an extra £100 per household.

Councillor Alan Turner said: “In terms of the precept, it roughly works out as an extra burden of £100 per household to provide allotments that would actually be further away than the existing allotment sites which are already available.

“It is a huge expense. It is a very difficult one, but we are bound to investigate and we are doing that.”

Councillors discussed the possibility of introducing a garden sharing scheme as an alternative.

Councillor Turner said: “People with large gardens who no longer are capable of looking after them can allow someone else to come in and grow their own crops on them and share the produce with each other.

“It works very well in larger cities and towns and that could be an option here.”

Councillor Adrian Rolfe agreed that garden sharing was a ‘great idea’, adding: “There are a lot of older people out there who would be happy to share their gardens and it saves a massive expense for the town. I wouldn’t like to sit here and spend that sort of money [on allotments] for a small amount of people.”

 Councillor Ian Churchill agreed it would be “crazy to spend that kind of money on allotments.”

 The question about whether or not to spend money on new allotments or to introduce a garden sharing scheme will now be put to residents as part of a residents’ survey.

Councillor Turner said: “Even if we had the money, which we don’t at the moment, we don’t know whether or not they would sell. It is the sort of expenditure that we feel we need to ask the residents.

“There is also another option that might be possible within the local plan, whether or not allotments might become available as part of an open spaces contribution from developers. This is something else we can look at.

 “We are happy to proceed with this through a consultation and further attempts through the local plan to achieve the aims of this petition.”