Plans For Extra Plots At Aldershot Road Allotments Site

Published on: 1 Mar, 2020
Updated on: 1 Mar, 2020

An information drop-in session on plans to create more plots at the Aldershot Road allotment site was hosted by Guildford Borough Council on Tuesday last week (February 26).

The drop-in information session about the extra plots planned for the Aldershot Road allotments.

The council’s plans for the creation of its Weyside Urban Village at Slyfield, with a new allotment site at North Moors and the closure of the Bellfields allotments at Old Farm Lagoon, includes extra plots at the Aldershot Road site.

A Twitter announcement by the council inviting people to the drop-in information session stated the extra plots are being proposed “so that every allotment holder is guaranteed a replacement plot of equal size”.

The Aldershot Road allotments.

Held at Westborough United Reformed Church in Southway, members of the council’s allotments project team were on hand at the drop-in information session to give information and answer questions.

The long-established Aldershot Road allotment site lies behind Westway and backs on to a part of Woodside Road.

A reporter from The Guildford Dragon NEWS attended the drop-in session and spoke to the chairman of the Guildford Allotment Society, Philippa Wright, regarding the Bellfields allotments.

She said: “We have received notification of the GBC application to the Secretary of State regarding the Bellfields allotment sites. We will be considering our response at our committee next week.

“We have been working with GBC on the allotment provision for the Bellfields sites. There will be provision made at the North Moors site and at the extension to the Aldershot Road site as well.

“The location of the North Moors site is not ideal but as far as we are aware, there is no alternative site available.”

Guildford Borough Councillor James Steel (Lib Dem, Westborough) attended the exhibition as the ward councillor. He said: “The local residents in Westborough and the allotment holders have been calling for an extension to the Aldershot Road allotment site for some time, as far back as the 2003 Local Plan.

“We will have re-provided allotment plots at North Moors, and the Aldershot Road, and some, for the Bellfields sites once they are closed.

“We are also working with the Aggie Club [in Bellfields] to provide them with a temporary solution before they move into the new, permanent community facilities which is phased about six or seven years into the development phase.”

See previous story Bellfields Plot-holders Step Up Campaign To Save Their Allotments.

While growers at the Aldershot Road allotments have had their own fight to save their plots.

In 2013 The Guildford Dragon NEWS reported that for the past 10 years they had been concerned they may lose their plots and houses would be built there.

Click here for the story.

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