A bitter turf war between a council and allotment campaigners may come to an end in the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday.

For the past four years, campaigners have been fighting to save Farm Terrace Allotments, which Watford Borough Council has been trying to close to make way for the Health Campus scheme.

The scheme aims to redevelop the land around Watford General with a new hospital, housing and leisure facilities The original Health Campus masterplan, drawn up in 2007, showed the development built around the Terrace Farm allotments, which have been in use since 1896.

Campaigners have twice taken the council to court and High Court judges have twice quashed the council’s decision to build on the land.

However, the council submitted another application to close the allotments in January and Save the Farm Terrace will return to court on October 21 in the hope a judge will hold a judicial review.

Tenants have been given until November 4 to vacate the site so Sara Jane Trebar, who spearheaded the campaign, hopes their challenge will be heard and a decision will be made on the day.

She said: “We really believe it will be ended this time. Of course we hope we win and that we get to keep the allotments.

“If after hearing the judicial review, the judge decides that the allotments will be closed then it will be really difficult to appeal this again, there’s only so many times we can battle this out. But we keep winning, and the council just keeps submitting more and more applications.

“We’ve gone to the High Court twice and won both times. We’ve paid for it all through fundraising sites. The council has been paying for their legal costs with taxpayers’ money and I’d love to know how much they spent.”

The council said the allotment land is needed to ensure the scheme is profitable enough for the developer to take on the project. It claims the land is critical to meet family housing needs and there are exceptional circumstances allowing it to close the allotments.

Mrs Trebar is confident they can win the case because she does not believe the council’s exceptional circumstances argument stands. She believes the Health Campus can still be built without closing the allotments and does not believe “building for profit” can be considered an exception.

She also said that the campaign group has been willing to compromise with the council, but this has been ignored.

She said: “We’ve tried to compromise with the council on a number of occasions – we’ve often said we’ll be willing to close part of the allotment, but not all of it, but they’re not interested in listening to that.

“We have also invited Mayor Dorothy Thornhill down here a number of times, but she hasn’t been once.”

The campaign group will be joined by other allotment groups on October 21. They will be holding a harvest festival outside the courts where they will give out fresh produce, make speeches and sing songs.

Mrs Trebar said: “What’s huge about this case is that it doesn’t only affect us in Watford, it will affect the future of allotments across the country. We have so much support, even from the National Allotment Society."

The case was first heard in the courts in 2012, when judges decided to quash the decision to close the allotments. The case then returned to the courts in 2014 after the council managed to successfully get permission to close the allotments in 2013. Again, High Court judges overturned the decision.

Elected mayor of Watford Dorothy Thornhill said: "It must be made absolutely clear that the Judicial Review is against the Secretary of State’s decision to grant the council permission to use the allotments for the Health Campus development.

"The council has always believed that the Health Campus is important to the people of Watford, as it will deliver up to 1,300 new jobs, much-needed homes, green open spaces which can be enjoyed by all and community facilities, including a community hub with shops. The hospital plans are now being firmed up and Watford has been highlighted as a key site for the development of medical facilities.

"The allotment site is vital to ensure the hospital has the flexibility to put in place what is needed." 

Watford Borough Council was contacted for a comment but had not responded when the paper went to print. 

The Observer will be reporting live from the meeting on Friday.