The mayor might be celebrating the end of Farm Terrace allotments as a local triumph, but she surely can’t be proud of the legal precedent that she has now established for the rest of the nation.

READ MORE: Watford allotment campaigners lose high court battle to save site​

The reason that the Farm Terrace Association’s fight was so tenacious and why they received such wide support from across the country was because this was a test case that will now undermine the legal protection of all allotments throughout the nation.

This was the reason why the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners backed the FTA in the courts. The mayor’s ‘triumph’ may give her some personal satisfaction but unfortunately it also now means open season on any allotment gardens that local authorities decide to sell to property developers.

It is a remarkable irony that while our mayor is selling off allotments adjacent to Watford General, a local authority in Gloucester is actually creating new allotments in the grounds of their hospital at Dursley. The health authority there plans to use these conveniently located new allotments to rehabilitate their patients and improve their health and nutrition.

In Watford it is not just a case of an opportunity missed but of an opportunity perversely and wilfully crushed.

Gill Wicks, Harwoods Road, Watford