Increasing costs to run Whitehill Town Council’s allotments sparked debate as to what level of service the authority should provide.

The biggest issue causing the increasing cost was the damage left by allotment holders once their year was up, as many did not care about losing the £50 deposit, councillors claimed.

This left the town council with large clean up bills and skip hire costs, which exceeded the money collected from the unclaimed deposits.

It was agreed therefore, unanimously to increase the new deposit charge substantially by 200 percent to £150 to deter people from leaving the allotments in a poor state and the council with a big clean up bill.

However, the council sparked into debate following the revelation the council was running the services for the allotment at a significant loss.

Town Mayor Cllr Catherine Clark said: “Unlike public spaces, allotments are a private service for individuals run by the council and that means taxpayers are paying for the losses.

“I personally don’t use the allotments like many other people but I use the public spaces, so should we as taxpayers pay for the losses created by the allotments? ”

Cllr Andy Tree disagreed, adding “ Our fees are matching those of are fellow councils and it would be wrong to increase the fees to minimise the losses even by £1 or £2 it would only save us less than £200.

“We provide a really good service to allotment holders and it would be pointless to charge people an extortionate amount to use the service.”

A split vote of four in favour of freezing the charges for the next year in line with other council, overruling the three against who wanted to increase fees to decrease the losses the service was creating.