A company wanting to create a huge allotment on the edge of Bristol have been told to stop work and wait until council planners have decided if they need planning permission or not, after local residents physically blocked tractors and lorries from accessing the field this week.
Council representatives visited the field on Wednesday this week, which is on the main A369 road through Abbots Leigh at the corner of the turning into Leigh Woods. They said they have told Roots Allotments, which already run two commercial allotment sites in Bath, that they should not do anything until the planning decisions have been made.
A spokesperson for North Somerset Council said planning officers have advised Roots that they should not do anything more until the legal arguments over whether they have to go through a full planning application process first are completed. Roots' bosses spoke of their frustration this week that North Somerset Council has not yet made a decision on whether to give them a Certificate of Lawful Use, or tell them they need to submit a full planning application, and have missed a couple of deadlines on when they have to make a decision.
