WITNEY Town Council has apologised for the length of time taken to hand over control of the town’s allotments.

The council offered Witney Allotment Association the opportunity to take over the lease on three sites in June 2010.

But a final draft of the lease has still not been drawn up.

Council chiefs apologised for letting the agreement “fall by the wayside” but promised to get it sorted out as soon as possible.

Allotment association members addressed the council’s leisure and recreation committee on Monday night.

They discussed the council’s second draft of the lease, which the association received on January 3 – four months after it responded to the first draft.

Member Andy Howells said: “It is interesting that it was almost two years ago that I attended this committee to express the enthusiasm of the allotment association to take on the day-to-day maintenance and running of the allotments.

“It is of no surprise and some frustration that here we are two years later.”

He said the association had experienced “great difficulty” communicating with the council during the past 18 months.

He said the association was still not able to sign the lease because the council was asking it to take ownership of the allotments’ boundary walls, which it could not agree to.

But he said once these concerns had been addressed, the association would be able to sign the lease, which it hoped to do before April 1.

The agreement will see the group take over the management, maintenance and rent collection at Lakeside, Hailey Road and Newland allotments. It will pay the council a peppercorn rent and hopes the deal will cut administration costs, enabling lower rents, and allow it to search for new allotment sites.

Councillor Chrissie Curry told the association: “It has fallen by the wayside a bit and we apologise for that, but let us redress the balance and get it sorted.

“The town clerk will immediately forward all these points to the solicitor and keep on top of it until the solicitor comes back with a revised draft lease with all the points you have made.”

Councillor Roger Curry said: “It does seem to have taken a long time and it seems unsatisfactory to me.

“Quite clearly as a town we ought to be getting on top this much quicker.”