COUNCILLOR Keith House (Letters, April 11) should reconsider his comments about Richard May's letters on allotments.

Mr May is correct in stating they have been decreased. Cllr House claims the opposite, the new sites he refers to are all of inferior quality to those sold for millions at South Street and Monks Way.

There are more sites but the overall area is less. However, his spin continues by claiming plot size in Eastleigh is five rods and that's how he justifies more new allotmenteers are being catered for.

In the 70 plus years I have been in allotment gardening the national accepted size of a plot is ten rods. However, in the Allotment Association submission to the High Court the average plot size was quoted as eight rods over the total membership, which means some are below and some above the standard size plot.

There is still the threat of development hanging over the Woodside site and the hundreds on the waiting list are still to be accommodated. Cllr House has chosen to ignore them and to suggest we are a small number of residents with a vested interest in opposing change is beyond belief.

We, as a group, must be in the top echelon in environmental terms in a town whose council claims to be a leader on green issues but in reality is overdeveloping before our already creakily infrastructure is upgraded.

Mr Justice Colvert Smith's summing up in the High Court stressed that if the council continued with the disposal of Woodside a "looming crisis'' for allotments availability in Eastleigh was evident.

So, Cllr House, stop misrepresenting the facts and the spin.

KEN WELLSTOOD, Eastleigh.