ALLOTMENT holders told to quit their plots last year are to be given a new site.

Kirklees Council will extend allotments at Windmill Crescent, Skelmanthorpe to cater for the displaced gardeners.

Plot-holders were told to move off two acres of privately- owned land at the village's Cumberworth Road.

Twenty people were given notice last September to leave the site after the land was sold in a London auction for £56,000.

Councillors said they would provide alternative space despite being under no obligation to do so.

A Cabinet report said: "Although there is a strong housing need for additional affordable housing in the Skelmanthorpe area, the land at Windmill Crescent is in the green belt and therefore has no development potential."

New owners Yorkshire Land, based in Penistone, outbid allotment holders who were willing to pay £15,000 for the two-acre site at Cumberworth Road.

The land was turned into allotments in 1928 and was leased to Skelmanthorpe Urban District Council and then to Kirklees Council.

It was bought from the Co-op in 1999 by Sandilane Property and Waingate Management of London, who continued to lease it to the council before putting it up for auction.

Attempts by allotment-holders to remain on the site failed.

Last December the council decided against issuing a compulsory purchase order.