FURIOUS Ashley Heath residents have voiced concerns that their village green will be transformed into allotments.

More than 60 locals turned out to a meeting of the parish council to battle against what they say is a plan to turn the playing field on Horton Road into 25 sites.

But councillors say they are obliged to look into the provision of allotments for waiting residents.

Nick Kenworthy, who lives in the village, said: “We understand that the parish council have had maybe five requests from people in the local area asking about allotments.

“We accept that this means they need to look into providing a space for these people. But we have a much larger population here who would rather have a village green than 25 allotments that will effectively be an eyesore.”

Villagers looked into the history of the recreation ground ahead of the meeting, and discovered it was a designated village green given to Ashley Heath by Lord Normanton of the Somerley estate.

“It was provided for the express use of all the residents in the community,” Mr Kenworthy said.

“A lot of locals turned out for the meeting, and there were some very emotive pleas to save one of our last open green spaces.

“This is somewhere used by children to ride their bikes or play football. People really enjoy it and it just doesn’t seem right that it could be taken away.”

However, Cllr Anne Warman said the council was currently in the very early stages of the investigation, adding that there was little else to say.

“We are trying to meet our statutory obligation to look into it, but really, that is all that’s happening at the moment,” she said.

“We are simply looking into possible sites.”

A report conducted by the parish council in February states that the allotments could be provided for £15,000 and VAT.

It says that the proposed footprint of the allotments and the car park would cover less than 15 per cent of the total site and would still allow for the provision of a full-size league standard football, rugby or cricket pitch.