TOWN councillors have rejected an appeal from an allotment holder to allow rewilding on the sites.

Giving a presentation at a meeting of the Andover Town Council allotments committee on Thursday, September 9, Mic Laird, who has an allotment plot at The Drove site, described the area as an “oasis”.

He said: “Slow worms are in abundance. The aim of our rewilding is to encourage the return of species that have been lost or are in decline.”

Mr Laird has divided his plot into sections, with around a third of his total space devoted to rewilding, while he cultivates more traditional fruit and vegetables on the rest.

Rewilding is a type of gardening which involves minimal cultivation, and introduces different types of plants to create an eco-system.

He said that, because allotment land has been fertilised so much, it makes it “very difficult” to grow flowers and other necessary plants to encourage rewilding

However, he said that on his site he has spotted eight different types of bee, butterflies, moths, crickets and caterpillars.

“Right now, I admit it looks a mess, but it is a transitory mess. Rewilding is necessary, otherwise we are going to lose the diversity of the flora and fauna.”

Mr Laird is therefore calling on the town council to consider allowing rewilding within plots more widely, rather than only on designated fringes and banks, as is currently the case.

However, while many of the councillors supported the efforts in principle, they said that uncultivated plots are against the allotment regulations, and cannot be allowed while a long waiting list for plots exists.

Cllr Nigel Long said: “Basically, your plot is non-cultivated, which is against town council rules. I am quite happy to see the edges around the allotment site used for rewilding in an allotment plot is the wrong place I think.”

Cllr Luigi Gregori added: “Wilding requires a lot of maintenance. So, you have my sympathy but the fact of the matter is the allotments are for allotments. There is a situation now that we have a shortage of allotment plots and there is no way, from my perspective, that we are going to convert any plots, which could be cultivated, into rewilding areas, because that’s what our statutory responsibility is, to provide allotments.

“Regarding the green agenda, you will find that at every single planning application we will hammer Test Valley [Borough Council] and the developers, so we are doing something from within what we can do.”

Cllr Robin Hughes pointed out that allowing rewilding on the town council’s seven allotment sites, which comprises of 500 plots, could be detrimental to allotment users who want to grow traditional plants.

He said: “Some of your activities are actually reducing the fertility of the plot you are using, but for anyone who wants to grow anything it is normally the other way around. In general we want to be supportive, because this activity should be occurring everywhere, but we are very constrained. We have more people waiting for sites than sites available.”

Cllr Barbara Long added: “If you are doing it on your site, everyone has to be allowed to do it on theirs and that is against the allotment act.”