IN response to the letter from Martin Kyrle, Thursday April 3, I take issue with his remarks.

Firstly, his derogatory labelling of allotment holders as a tiny rump. The number of people who benefit or would like to benefit from allotment gardening in Eastleigh is considerable and growing and as a group are as important within the community as any other group.

Secondly, to make the assertion that the challenge to the decision by the Secretary of State in the High Court was a waste of public money flies in the face of the Judge who expressed sympathy with the grounds and dismissed the applications for costs by the treasury and council with a shake of the head. I can sum up Mr. Kyrles' antipathy toward allotment gardeners and failure to understand what it's like for people in the real world with his suggestion, made in March 2003, that "people who want to grow their own vegetables should buy a house with a big garden as I did''. (Not in Eastleigh I fear) Ted Ingram, Eastleigh.