I FIND with dismay that the Bassetsbury Allotment site, which was closed in mid-February due to a contamination scare, has been earmarked for development for some time, with the possibility of accommodating 50 houses.

The contamination scare has come at a bad time for allotment holders, who are now banned from using their allotments right at the start of the growing season.

Allotment holders have asked the council for the details of the contamination, and are waiting for more information.

The Allotments Act 1925 “required local authorities to recognise the need for allotments in any town planning development”, and “established ‘statutory’ allotments which a local authority could not sell or convert to other purposes without Ministerial consent”.

I would like to know, with all the many areas of land being earmarked for housing, where exactly are the sites earmarked for new allotments, including sites possibly to replace the Bassetsbury one?

With 170 people already on waiting lists for unparished allotments, the council would, by allowing building on this site, make it less likely that it could fulfil its statutory obligation to provide allotments 'where there is a perceived need’.

Jenny Rogers, Transition Town High Wycombe and Bare Gardens.