Angry allotment holders at Pickering are fighting to stop the land they have tended for decades being turned over for housing.

James Leng, of Willowgate, Pickering, in his allotment

The move comes days after the Evening Press reported on allotment gardeners at Kirkbymoorside joining forces to fight a possible North Yorkshire County Council sell-off of part of their site.

At Pickering, allotment holders claim landowner Peter Michelson wants the Ryedale Local Plan description of the site changed from amenity to housing development, meaning developers could move in behind Willowgate in the town's conservation area. Objectors crowded into an extraordinary meeting of Pickering Town Council to hear councillors give unanimous backing to demands that the land be left as allotments.

Coun Joan Taylor said: "This is part of Pickering's history. Twenty years ago, the same person tried to sell them off. If we lose all these little bits of greenery, we will soon be an urban sprawl."

Residents have until the end of next week to make their views known to the inspector presiding over the public inquiry into the Ryedale Local Plan at Ryedale House, Malton.

Meanwhile, about 40 allotment holders at Kirkbymoorside are appealing to Environment Minister Michael Meacher to save their allotments.

Gareth Roberts, land and property manager for Mouchel (North Yorkshire) which manages the site for the county council, said the land was surplus to the authority's requirements. He said the county council objected to the land being allocated for allotment use in the Ryedale Local Plan.

Mr Roberts said neither Ryedale District Council nor Kirkbymoorside Town Council had expressed interest in buying the site.

He said the allotment site was suitable for infill development and the county council was anxious to realise capital on its assets to fund other services. Mouchel proposes to move the allotments to agricultural land, shifting top soil to the inferior land and giving plotholders a rent-free period.

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