ALLOTMENT holders who won their battle to stop church leaders selling off one of the oldest registered allotment sites in the country say they have come to a deal which protects half the site for the future.

The diocese is gifting three quarters of an acre of the land on Masham Road in Bedale to Bedale Allotment Society and giving money towards the levelling and replanting of the plots. The other half of the land which was first registered as allotments in the 1830s, will be sold off for new housing.

Thousands of people signed a petition to save the land, including many churchgoers, after the diocese originally moved to eject the allotment holders and sell the land for housing with a price tag of £1 million.

Another site on the outskirts of town on Masham Road was being suggested for potential new allotments but members rejected it as being too isolated.

Society secretary John Burton said it this was a “good compromise” although they were losing up to half the land they were being given money which meant contractors could help clear the site and set up new plots.

“It is being gifted to us so the future is assured and there is sufficient money to landscape the land. It looks terrible at the moment, there is widespread devastation and destruction but from those ashes new allotments will be developed which will preserve the green space for the future. They will be smaller plots but for a lot of members that is not a problem."

He said fruit trees would be taken out and replanted in once place and a new communal cabin would bring people together.

"Up to a third of our members don’t want to carry on so we will have around 22 plots but we still have a waiting list of people who want to take them on," he added.

Mr Burton revealed details of the new deal to members of Bedale Town Council, but Councillor John Noone said there were still concerns, adding:

"There is a danger that we could lose them if the interest drops, the diocese could still take them back and we could lose them forever."

But Mr Burton said: "We are duty bound to offer the land back to the diocese if the allotments are not used and the society does not carry on, but I envisage them being well used for a long time to come.”