A NEW allotment site could be set up in Clitheroe after town councillors expressed their support.

Clitheroe Town Council currently runs three sites, in Hayhurst Street, Whalley Road and in Milthorne, but has a two-year waiting list for new plots.

It was also recently announced that the private allotments behind the old Craven Heifer pub in Whalley Road could be turned into houses if a planning application is approved by Ribble Valley Borough Council.

Town councillors Kevin Horkin and Simon O’Rourke have said that they would encourage the rest of the council to ‘seriously consider’ looking at the possibility of opening a new site.

Coun O’Rourke said: “More and more people are wanting to have an allotment because they don’t have a big enough garden or don’t have one all together.

“The current waiting list is very long at the moment and it’s something that the council could look at.

“We have talked in the past about people sharing allotments but that idea never seemed to catch on.

“It’s a very hard situation because money is the main barrier as well as trying to find a suitable site.”

Coun Horkin said: “We have in the past tried to earmark a new site but it didn’t come to anything in the end.

“I have always said that we should have another site and we could work alongside the borough council to try and find a new site.

“There is defiantly the interest from the residents of Clitheroe and the council should do more to reflect that need.”

Transition Town Clitheroe recently launched a campaign to encourage people in the town to share their gardens and allow people to use a plot to grow their own vegetables.

An allotments competition will be held in June where members of the waiting list will be given the chance to win a plot in a council-run allotment.

For more information call Janet Meloy on 01200 424722.