Rushden pensioners are claiming that a sewer pipe being laid through their allotment plots is ruining crops.

But the Urban Council which is responsible for the works says the allotment holders were given as much notice as possible.

The pipe, next to Bedford Road, runs through 14 plots eight of which belong to pensioners who rely on the potatoes to “see them through the winter.”

They claim Rushden Urban Council gave them only about two months’ notice – long after the crops were planted in March.

One allotment holder, Mr. Sydney Smith, of 65 Little Street, Rushden, said: “We’re pensioners and we need the potatoes for the winter. Why can’t the council lay its pipe across the road on council land?”

Another plot holder, Mr. Ernest Head, explained “We each received a notice from the council on May 7 stating that it was necessary to build a sewer pipe through our allotments and that we would get compensation for the crops destroyed.

“They should have told us before we planted in March, then we could have planted elsewhere. Now potatoes, swedes, parsnips, gooseberry bushes and currant bushes are just being dug up.”

“The letter said that we would get compensation but we don’t want it to be a council assessor who knows nothing about gardening to give us a bad deal. We would like to see an independent assessor,” said Mr. George Stebbet, of 100 Park Road, Rushden, ex-president of the Rushden branch of the Permanent Allotment and Small Holdings Society.

Deputy surveyor of the council, Mr. O. P. Smith, said: “May 7 was the earliest date possible to inform the holders and it is unfortunate that the summer, when the contractors can work faster, is the growing period. “If work began after the harvest in September it would have to be done during the bad weather months and this would be more expensive,” Mr. Smith explained.

He said it would be impossible to put the sewer on council land on the other side of Bedford Road.

“The land there is an old rubbish tip and if the pipe was built there it would subside.

“Compensation is in the hands of the contractors who will have his own negotiator. This is a matter between the holders and the negotiator,” added Mr. Smith.