KENNET District Council has defended its new policy on protecting allotments in the face of opposition from the company who want to develop the former allotments at Spitalcroft for housing.

Philip Hardwick, planning manager for Robert Hitchins Ltd, the company which wants to build 120 homes on the site, has detailed his objections to planning policy TR20, which protects allotment land unless replacement land of at least the same size and quality is provided.

He was speaking at a public inquiry into the replacement Kennet district local plan at the Corn Exchange last Tuesday,

Mr Hardwick said TR20 is unnecessary as it virtually duplicates the existing TR17 policy which seeks to protect recreation land generally.

But Peter Towler for Kennet said that allotment land differs from other recreational land because it is used for cultivation and therefore has to be of particularly high quality.

He said: "Allotments need specific protection from conversion to other uses without replacement. It is realistic to predict that demand for allotments will increase with a more active retirement population.

"Allotments are unique among open spaces because of cultivation and that needs to be recognised in the policy."

Questioned by Mr Hardwick, Kennet planning officer Carolyn Gibson agreed that allotments did not provide an important open space function in their own right.

Mr Hardwick insisted that the best use of Spitalcroft would be likely to be achieved by allocating it for residential development.

At the moment it does not appear as development land in the replacement local plan second draft.

Spitalcroft allotments have featured in two previous public inquiries, including one against the refusal of planning permission by Kennet District Council against a plan to build 120 homes on the allotments.

Planning inspector Robert Maxwell agreed with Kennet that the alternative land being offered for allotments at Windsor Drive was not of sufficient quality and would be detrimental to the landscape setting of Devizes.

There is also dispute over how long it would take to prepare the land at Windsor Drive for allotment cultivation. Kennet's experts say it would take up to five years for the land to be in prime condition, while Mr Hardwick told the inquiry that his information was it could be ready in between six months to a year.