Andrew Batty, 59, contacted the Chronicle with his concerns after Robert Moses, who he shares the allotment with, was given a notice from Barnsley Council’s allotment services department on April 27.
The allotment, on Summer Lane in Wombwell, has had a ‘huge’ impact on Andrew’s family - after relying on it for fresh fruit and vegetables for a number of years.
“Our main concern is having everything taken away from us,” he said.
“We’ve put a lot of hard work into our allotment over the years - everything is divided between us.
“From the wood we’ve collected, to our hens and their eggs.
“We’ll lose everything.
“I have a big family - there’s about 30 of us - we’ve relied on supplies from the allotment for as long as I can remember.
“Particularly during the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis when times have been harder than usual.”
Andrew explained how the notice came as a ‘sudden shock’ and said he felt it was unfair - given the number of years they’ve had the land and hadn’t experienced any issues before now.
He added: “Someone complained because part of our fencing was coming down - making it look temporarily untidy.
“But the thing is - you have to make it untidy to get it tidy again.
“We didn’t plan on leaving the fencing as it was - but someone obviously saw it and reported us to the council straight away without addressing their concerns to us beforehand.
“There has been no breach of any rules - we haven’t done anything wrong.
“We haven’t been able to speak to anyone from the department directly - the number on the letter Robert received won’t connect
“So we’ve been given this notice, completely out of the blue, and there isn’t a great deal we can do about it.”
Matt O’Neill, executive director for growth and sustainability, told the Chronicle that the council conducted a check and found issues at the site.
“We were informed of a breach of point six of our tenancy agreement, which says the allotment must be kept ‘in a good state of cultivation and fertility and in good condition’.
“We conducted an investigation which found issues of non-compliance with the agreement - the plot was not being used for the intended purposes and storage onsite had damaged the perimeter fencing, which we had to repair at a cost to the council and ultimately the taxpayer.”
