MALVERN Town Council is proposing to alter the designation of our local play area to allotment use and has applied to the district council for this change.

The new Local Plan policies seem to me to be quite clear and will create difficulties if such permission is granted, both for the planning authority, and local children.

It appears that it is suggested that the children cross the railway via the pedestrian uncontrolled crossing and play on the Lower Howsell Fields (on which the pitches are frequently let out for club use).

I have tried to establish if there is a need for further allotments and to do this I have extracted from Malvern Town Council's accounts over the last seven years the cost of providing allotments.

Over those years, the costs have exceeded income by £76,546, that is £10,935 per year average. The total number of allotments appears to be between 123 and 128, so the net subsidy to each allotment tenant appears to be between £88.90 and £85.42.

Would the claimed list of prospective tenants be prepared to pay the true cost to the charge payers of providing this service?

I have also established that the plan is to provide 48 allotments at Greenfields Road and that a budget figure of £60,000 is envisaged, although I have been refused sight of the relevant report to council, which I hope will identify the actual costs.

R D Williams, Greenfields Road, Malvern.