Huddersfield allotment campaigners win High Court fight

The High Court victory was the end of a two-year fight to save the allotments

Campaigners have won a High Court battle to stop a council bulldozing their allotments to turn them into playing fields for a new school.

Kirklees Council said the Cemetery Road plots in Huddersfield were temporary, despite them being used since 1935.

Allotment holders argued planners should have first applied for a change of use of the land.

The council said it was disappointed and would appeal directly to the Housing Secretary James Brokenshire.

The judge refused permission for an appeal and ordered the council to pay campaigners' legal costs of £12,119 within a month.

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The judicial review was brought by allotment holder Jonathan Adamson, who said: "It's been a long fight we're obviously over the moon.

"But this hasn't finished yet, not until the council walks away from it, there may be more for us to do

"In meantime, we'll carry on digging and growing."

Pat Worthing, secretary of Cemetery Road Allotments, was one of those who would have had to leave the site

The legal case to save the allotments began in November but allotment holders said they had been dealing with the planning department for "at least two years".

The council wanted the land for playing fields and a car park for the new £9.7m Brambles Primary Academy.

The allotment holders' case was funded with their own cash and £2,500 of donations from a Crowdjustice page, while an online petition had attracted 6,802 signatures.

Mr Justice Kerr, sitting on the Queen's Bench Division Administrative Court, said he was quashing the council's decision to appropriate the land and force the allotment holders to leave.

Kirklees Council said: "This decision will delay us in providing the new school local children deserve."