PRESSURE from hundreds of angry local residents has prompted a public ballot on plans to sell off a 20 plot allotment site in Amberley Road, Storrington, and develop it for housing.

Campaigners are concerned about the way the ballot is being run and how it will or will not be independently audited.

The council's controversial plans to sell the site for at least £1million, using some of the proceeds to buy a new allotment site on agricultural land in Fryern Road, have infuriated not only plot holders, but also residents.

The Fryern Road site has been described as 'rabbit-infested grazing land, totally unsuitable heavy clay, it floods, has wireworm, poor access and people would have to drive to get there'.

Slow worms, which are a protected species under the Wildlife and Coutnryside Acct 1981, live on the current site, which was gifted to the village in the 19th century by the Parham estate.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette July 2