APRIL 26 is D-Day for campaigners who have fought a long-running battle to save Hampshire allotments from being sold off for housing.

That is the date set for the start of a public inquiry ordered by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, which could cost Eastleigh council taxpayers up to £35,000.

Civic chiefs have set aside the fighting fund for hiring lawyers, staging the inquiry and paying fees to expert witnesses.

Allotment holders have battled for more than two years to save the leisure gardening plots they have cultivated for decades from being covered by new homes.

Meanwhile, council chiefs have argued that moving plot holders to alternative land would help meet a desperate need for affordable homes as well as protect countryside areas from development.

Now the battle will go before a government-appointed planning inspector who will make a clear ruling on whether civic bosses are within their rights to dispose of two allotment sites in the town.

The inquiry is set to open at Eastleigh's civic offices at 10am on April 26 and it is estimated that it will last four days.

Mr Prescott intervened after Eastleigh unveiled plans for 430 homes on a site south of Monks Way and South Street in Eastleigh.

The council gave itself outline permission for the development in October 2003. But after looking at the case, the Deputy Prime Minister ruled that although Eastleigh could have the final say over its planning permission for homes he wanted an inquiry to advise him on the council's related request to dispose of part of the proposed development site used for allotments.

Eastleigh and Bishopstoke Allotment Association believes it has a strong case to put to the inquiry.