Allotment holders in Watford are fighting a third attempt to build on their site, which has served West Watford for 120 years.
For the third time, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has agreed that Watford Council can appropriate the Farm Terrace Allotment site for development – despite the two previous decisions having been quashed by the High Court.
The plot-holders have now been given notice to quit the site by October 7 – but they’re not giving up. They are heading back to court to challenge the council’s assertion that its application to build on the site is justified by ‘exceptional circumstances’. Their fight, they say, is for the future of all local authority-owned allotments, because if Watford Council can claim that their need for building land is ‘exceptional’, then no allotment site is safe.
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There will be an article about the Farm Terrace allotments in the magazine early next year – and if you’d like to have a hand in writing a positive outcome to the story, you can contribute towards the cost of taking the case back to court at https://www.gofundme.com/save-farm-terrace
