ANGRY allotment holders plan to claim compensation that could run in to hundreds of pounds from the town council over delays in setting up new plots they do not wish to move to.

Peter Highton, 76, chairman of the Calne Allotment Society, which represents the 46 gardeners who are being moved from the Newcroft Road allotments, said each member has been sent a form by the council to claim back money in lost crops.

The opening of a new site at Lower Beversbrook, two-and-a-half miles away, has been delayed by four weeks.

The allotment holders had been asked to vacate the old site by the end of September and were told to collect existing crops by October 22, but the new site at Lower Beversbrook was not completed until last week.

Linda Wakefield, Deputy Town Clerk, said allotment holders would be sent a letter this week saying they have a month to move.

She said the town council's four groundsmen would be available to help the holders move.

"Because of the time this is all taking to resolve we are now losing time to prepare our land," said Mr Highton, of Abberd Way, Calne.

"We cannot put in our gooseberry bushes or blackcurrant bushes because we can't take the land up and turn it over now that the frost is here.

"We don't know exactly when we're moving, or how we're moving, and those that have agreed to move are losing time as well.

"Everyone has lost money through not being able to lay our crops or bushes and we intend to be recompensed.

"The whole thing has been a shambles and I am morally shattered because I feel we have been shunted around like a set of illiterate peasants."

Mr Highton said he would be claiming £86.44 back from the town council.

He said some members had agreed to move but some were elderly and did not have transport.

Mrs Wakefield said that councillors are hoping to save some existing plots at Newcroft Road, for holders who did not wish to move.

Mr Highton said he agreed with the suggestion, and had approached Calne MP Michael Ancram to help the society preserve some plots at Newcroft.

"We would like to see the council use imagination and lateral thinking and we would like to be involved in helping identify possible sites," said Mr Highton.

"Even if sites are earmarked for development is it not possible for the council to rent them for, say, ten years?

"I told Mr Ancram that there are some of us who would like to stay at Newcroft, if that were possible, and asked whether he could bring some pressure to bear on the town council to achieve this."

He said he told the Conservative MP that the holders were being moved to smaller plots that they do not wish to move to.

"The average size of an allotment in the UK, according to the National Allotment Society, is 250 square yards, and each of the plots at Newcroft is about 274 sq yards," added Mr Highton.

He said the new ones will equate to 150 sq metres (179 sq yards).

The town council is putting up rent on the plots from £6 per year to £10 and is introducing a charge of £5 a year to use a shed, which will adjoin each plot, and be built by the council.

dvaller@newswilts.co.uk