Top soil mystery at allotments at centre of legal bid

ALLOTMENT HOLDERS in Huddersfield say they are baffled over the mysterious loss of top soil from their plots.

Gardeners at Cemetery Road Allotments in Birkby, who are about to take on Kirklees Council at the High Court in Leeds, say high-quality cultivated top soil has been removed and replaced with stony, sandy earth.

And they suspect that it is part of an ongoing plan by the council to eventually take over the whole of the allotments, part of which has already been earmarked as playing fields for a new school.

“What has happened to the good soil?” asked Jonathan Adamson, who will lead the campaigners’ fight during their judicial review on March 18. “Has it been sold? If so, where? And would it not have made more sense for the council to keep the good soil and use it on the replacement plots they have offered us? We’re baffled.”

Kirklees Council has allocated part of the allotments at Cemetery Road to be turned into playing fields for a new £9.7m primary school. Tenants have been offered new, alternative plots.

The council says the land at Cemetery Road is designated as temporary allotments but campaigners reject that, saying the land has been used as allotments since 1935 and that provision would have been made permanent in the 1950s.

In what has become a longrunning dispute, plot-holders say the council has adopted a heavyhanded approach, even banning some tenants from their plots.

The mystery of the missing top soil now has the gardeners flummoxed however. Campaign spokeswoman Debby Fulgoni, inset, said: “All cultivated top soil was scraped off and removed. Then the council brought in replacement soil that was stony, sandy and thin. When it was inspected by the Allotments Association it was found to be very poor quality. It wouldn’t be good for growing.”

Mrs Fulgoni and Mr Adamson say tenants are worried that the removal of the soil is a “softeningup exercise” by the council for taking the rest of the allotments at a later date.

He said: “The soil is going to be crucial and people will be less likely to take allotments if it’s poor. This is about the council degrading the allotments.”

Mr Adamson confirmed that the campaigners’ case for the judicial review is now prepared and that they are awaiting a response from the council.