MORE than 15,000 people have said no - but still council chiefs are forging ahead with plans to build hundreds of homes on allotments.

Twice campaigners have delivered huge piles of angry letters in wheelbarrows to their civic leaders, but their protests have been ignored.

An application to build 432 homes on a massive Hampshire allotments site has been lodged with planners.

Opponents claim it will destroy communities and end a way of life for scores of keen gardeners.

But council chiefs say the new homes are desperately needed to solve the area's housing crisis.

Gardener Sue leads Land Army protest

SHE has just enough sight to be able to make out the bright colours of the flowers she has grown.

For six years Sue Dixon has lovingly tended her allotment garden. It is such a labour of love that it is not unusual to find Sue starting work at 7.30am and working through the best part of the day.

Now she is part of a 15,500-strong land army of protesters who are taking on Eastleigh Borough Council.

Sue, 47, joined other angry allotment gardeners who have twice marched on the town's civic offices in their fight to save their plots from land-hungry developers.

Two huge demonstrations have delivered around 15,500 letters of objection to council chiefs who want to sell off allotment land at Woodside Avenue, South Street and Monks Way for hundreds of new homes.

Borough bosses have now applied for outline planning permission for 432 homes on land south of South Street, where Sue has an allotment.

The site is currently owned by the council and Hilliers Nurseries and is partly vacant. Borough Council leader Keith House believes the proposals will help meet a desperate need for more homes.

He said: "The extent of housing need in the borough has been highlighted in a survey of over 11,000 local households.

"It makes grim reading with a desperate need for more homes and a rising number of people coming to the council for help with their housing. It is important that we find land that can be developed in the short term and believe new developments should be concentrated within or close to existing settlements rather than building in open countryside and setting up new growth areas. These proposals would go a long way to help alleviate our housing problem."

In addition to new homes the planning application includes an area at the junction of South Street and Southampton Road for business use.

Each home would have 1.5 car parking spaces plus some on-street parking. Road access would be from South Street, Arnold Road, Cheriton Road and Monks Way.

A new area of allotments running parallel with the Lakeside Country Park boundary is included in the plans. A council spokesman said the application would be considered at a special meeting of the borough's Eastleigh local area committee in the summer. If the application was approved it would be submitted to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott.

Sue is particularly proud of her marigolds but also grows broad beans, beetroot, carrots, swede, cabbage, onions, potatoes and lettuce, which helps keep the shopping bills down.

She couldn't move to the new site because it is too far from her home and she doesn't have access to a car.

She said: "We have a lovely little community here. Everyone helps everybody here and all that could be taken away.

"My allotment is only about five minutes away from my home and I only have one road to cross. When I am there I feel safe and I get a lot of support from the other plot holders.

"They have even put down the straight lines on my allotment so when I sow my seeds they do not go all over the place."