NEIGHBOURS of the Winchester pensioner who may be forced to lose the allotment he has devotedly tended for more than 60 years are rallying behind him.

The Daily Echo recently highlighted the plight of 89-year-old Arthur Sykes who has grown vegetables on the plot behind his house in Kings Avenue, Stanmore since 1940.

However Mr Sykes says he is still in the dark over city council plans to sell off his beloved allotment to make way for new social housing on the site - a fate he says would be a tragedy.

"Nobody has told me anything," said Mr Sykes, a widower whose wife Hilda died about 18 months ago. I wouldn't say it's a worry because I've got used to it but that allotment is part of my life and I don't ever want to see it go."

Green-fingered Mr Sykes, whose latest crop includes early potatoes and beetroot, tends his allotment every day and says he would not give up the plot for "all the money in the world".

"I would not like to think there might come a time when I won't be able to potter out my door and go to the allotment. If I don't have something to do I will be saddled."

Mr Sykes is the last plot holder at the site and the rest of the land has become overgrown.

It has been earmarked for development along with another allotment off Cromwell Road and seven garage compounds. One neighbour who has come out against the plans is Bonnie Michael, a 30-year-old mum, from Kings Avenue in Stanmore.

She said: "I don't agree with selling off allotments at all, as in my opinion there are lots of other and more suitable sites lying unused.

"It's outrageous that the council should be moving this man off an allotment he has worked on for 60 years without giving any thought to the damage it might do to him.

"This whole fiasco all seems to have been badly thought out from the start."

Other local residents are also against kicking Mr Sykes off his land.

Joseph Mould, 72, of Kings Avenue, said: "I do support Arthur, he's been there for so many years and it's his pleasure."

Eileen Matthews, 74, of Princes Place, said: "I have been here 28 years and Arthur has done that allotment for about 50 or 60 years.

"I see him there every day and I think it would finish him if he couldn't do it anymore."

Now following a consultation exercise with planning consultants J Thompson & Partners, other groups from across the city are coming out in support of Mr Sykes' aim to keep gardening, including members of the Winchester New Allotment Holders Society.