AS recently as July 2004 The Crow carried a report which denied that the Coombes Hole allotments would be sold to fund a new town hall, suggesting that this had been a throwaway remark . Looking at The Crow front page last week, maybe it wasn t. Allot

AS recently as July 2004 The Crow carried a report which denied that the Coombes Hole allotments would be sold to fund a new town hall, suggesting that this had been a "throwaway remark".

Looking at The Crow front page last week, maybe it wasn't.

Allotment holders were opposed to moving then, yet the matter has been raised again, less than three years later. Was anyone listening?

The figures you quoted last week, plus a planning gain, could equal the funding shortfall needed for the railway crossing, which councillors have promised, but without the necessary funding in place (still).

Is this what is behind this latest story?

Are we to give up everything? Toilets, buses, green spaces, gardens, allotments? Council tax continues to rise, yet much of what makes the town is being taken away.

Why are we not getting more allotments, to compensate for the growth of population and the ever smaller gardens being approved by the planners (not even in accordance with their own guidelines)?

No wonder people don't turn up to the town meeting any more - there isn't anyone there who is listening.

JOHN LEDDEN

Green Drift

Royston