Allotment keepers are trying a new tack to get approval for controversial new allotments on disused land in Hereford.

Hereford Allotments and Leisure Gardeners (HALGS) previously applied over a year ago for planning permission for the quarter-hectare former playing area enclosed by housing west of the A49 Ross Road.

But the group withdrew its bid following concerns raised by National Highways, which manages the A49, saying they did not think vehicles could safely enter and exit the unsurfaced single-lane access track off and onto the main road by the Ross Road Health Centre.

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The proposal also drew unfavourable reactions from neighbours and the city and county councils.

That appeared to be the end of the matter. But now HALGS is seeking a different route (application 241928) to gaining permission for the plan.

Allotments are defined in law as agriculture, so the change would be “reversion” to this following use of the land as a play area, which anyway “ceased some years ago”, the new application says, citing previous case law in support.

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The plan should therefore not be considered as “development”, and so “does not require planning permission”, it claims.

Instead the application is simply seeking a certificate of lawfulness from the council enabling the allotments plan to go ahead – the planning merits of the proposal being “not relevant” in such a case.

And while an illustrative plan of the proposal shows 24 allotments on the site, “the number of allotments and their layout is irrelevant to the principle of the land use”, the application explains.

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It adds that the land is owned by Connexus Housing Group and the application “is being made with its knowledge and consent”.

A registered charity, HALGS already manages around 440 allotments across nine sites, so far all owned by Herefordshire Council.

Comments are not being accepted on this latest application.