Watford Health Campus moved a step closer this week but is set to come at the expense of Farm Terrace allotments which councillors agreed to hand to developers.

The development would regenerate land between Watford FC and Watford General with a new hospital, around 600 homes and new businesses.

At Watford Borough Council’s cabinet meeting on Monday evening (December 1), around 50 allotment holders and campaigners made their voices heard with many singling out Mayor Dorothy Thornhill for criticism.

As the recommendation to absorb the allotments into the health campus development was unanimously approved by the Liberal Democrat cabinet, many in the audience jeered and shouted “shame”.

The situation came as a shock to some as the allotments were protected from the health campus development in a 2007 plan before a second set of plans released in June said building the extra housing is necessary to provide “financial resilience in uncertain economic times”.

Councillors were told that 40 per cent of allotment land would accomodate hospital facilities while the majority would be used for homes.

Earlier in the meeting Mayor Thornhill described the report being considered as “a milestone in the development of the health campus” but added “it gives me no pleasure that we are sitting here considering the future of Farm Terrace”.

After the meeting, she said: “I expected it to be nothing different, I knew people would be unhappy and if anything I thought it would be worse.

“This is one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make but I am more convinced now that it is necessary than I was at the beginning of this process.”

Professor Tom Hanahoe, chairman of West Herts Hospital Trust, urged the council to include the allotment land in a letter to the council.

He also attended Monday's meeting, at which he said: “On the present footprint without the allotments it would be extremely difficult to do that [build the new hospital].

“From the hospital’s perspective it would be immensely helpful to have further degrees of freedom.”

He also spelled out the need for an improved hospital saying the accident and emergency department alone catered for 500,000 patients last year.

He said: “We have many more patients coming to Watford than we had last year.

“People want to come to us but the problem is we are trying to deliver 21st Century medicine in 19th Century facilities. We need a new Watford General Hospital.”

Professor Hanahoe added that the trust expected to become a foundation trust in 2013 which would enable it to borrow money on the open market to fund the new hospital.

Allotment holders on the 106-year-old site will be offered alternative plots in Paddock Road two miles away or the closer Holywell.

Labour, Green Party and independent councillors also attended the meeting and grilled health bosses and council officers on the proposal. Councillor Asif Khan said: “Why can’t other land Watford has be used for housing and the allotments remain as they are?”

Lib Dem group leader Councillor Iain Sharpe hit back saying: “There were no objections made at any meetings to the use of this land for housing.”

Labour leader Councillor Nigel Bell pointed to a Government plan to reintroduce Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) which was announced on Wednesday and called on the council to look into this rather than pursue an LABV which required the council to give up land.

He said: “Now a form of PFI is being brought in, why can’t Watford have a hospital built from public money? Wouldn’t that be better than relying on the NHS and Kier. We think the MD and the mayor should be looking into that.”

Mary Reid from the West Watford and Oxhey Garden and Allotment Society said she was disappointed but not surprised by the decision and vowed to fight on.

She said: “We are not giving up, this is obviously a blow but it was what we expected.

“They still have to go through consultation and we are hoping people come out and make their own judgement. Then of course they will have to go through planning and finally the Secretary of State. There’s plenty more fight to come because this is the wrong decision.”