Campaigners trying to save under-threat West Watford allotments are preparing to take the fight to the High Court.

The Farm Terrace Community Association has instructed a law firm to start laying the ground work for a judicial review of the decision to allow the Farm Terrace Allotments to be built over as part of the Watford Health Campus scheme.

The group has started fundraising to get the process moving and say they will need to raise around £30,000 to see the review all the way through.

If successful the review could force a rethink of the secretary of state’s decision to grant Watford Borough Council permission to build on the allotments as part of the scheme.

The health campus aims to regenerate the land behind Vicarage Road with new hospital buildings, 600 new homes and new businesses.

Sara Jane Trebar, a spokesman for the association, said the group said they had received positive advice from law firm Deighton Pierce Glyn about their chances success at judicial review.

She said: "We have had advice from lawyers and they think we have a very strong case. The only problem is the funds and that’s why we set up the gofundme site.

"We have private investors who will come in when it is necessary so we are very confident we will raise the amount."

Initial plans for the health campus, which aimed to build a new hospital using a private finance initiative, had protected the Farm Terrace Allotments.

However that plan hit the buffers during the recession and Watford Borough Council drew up a new scheme partnering with a private company Kier in a local asset-backed vehicle agreement to get the project moving again.

Last summer the council voted to include the allotments in the health campus land, saying it was needed to make the scheme economically viable.

The decision has provoked an angry reaction from plot-holders who launched a campaign to save the site.

Their efforts were dealt a blow in May when Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, granted the council permission to use the allotments in the scheme.

Ms Trebar added: "They (the law firm) have confidence the secretary of state has not applied the policies properly in this case.

"This is to save Farm Terrace. This would not be worth it if we did not think it would save Farm Terrace."