WITH food prices soaring and household budgets getting tighter, a campaign has started in another west Wiltshire village to find land for residents to grow their own produce.

Following calls for allotments in Westbury in July, Sutton Veny Parish Council is seeking help from local landowners or large estates to provide space for plots after several requests from interested villagers.

Ted Day, 76, is a resident in Sutton Veny and used to grow a variety of produce when he worked as a tractor driver on the Sutton Veny Estate, until he retired 14 years ago.

He said: "When I worked I always had a big garden to grow things, and I miss it. Down this end the ground is very hard and it is not good for growing vegetables."

Parish council clerk Jacqueline Smith said the council would love to be able to provide residents with the chance to grow their own produce.

"We are looking for an altruistic land owner," she said. "We have had letters from people asking about it. It is probably down to food prices. People are looking to see where they can save money."

The town clerk grows her own vegetables and said she can appreciate the value of being able to eat homegrown produce.

Mrs Smith said: "It is not just that a parish council wishes or decides to take on a project, it has a duty under Government statute."

A council must formerly consider any written request by six or more electors to operate the Allotments Act, under the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908.

Mrs Smith, who has been town clerk for more than six years, said: "We have all seen the rise in prices of nearly all food items, including vegetables and fruit, and this may be partly responsible for the number of requests that the parish council has received for allotments to be provided.

"It has always been something that has, to me, been lacking in Sutton Veny as a recently moved in villager - villages need allotments.

"I am a keen, if not very successful, vegetable grower and I have seen the pleasure horticulture can give.

"It is down to the parish council to try and ensure this happens and I'm sure they'll rise to the challenge if we can only get landowners to help."