Guildford Allotment stalwarts Beverley Mussell and her husband Lyn, both pensioners, came home on Saturday 21st July to find a letter from Guildford Borough Council summarily terminating the lease on 2 of their plots.

It was claimed that these 2 plots should not have been let in the first place yet Bev has been paying rent for over 30 years on hers, and husband Lyn has held his plot for over 10 years.

The Mussell family have been tenants on the Aldershot Road Allotment site in Guildford for 35 years and have worked tirelessly to keep the site going and to promote a good Allotment Community.

None of this seems to cut any ice with the Council or their Site Management Agents as they have stated they are about to relet the Mussell familys' other plots on the site.

The reason being given was that these plots they are not up to standard (no-one knows what that standard actually is!!). The Mussells are superb gardeners, their plots are well cultivated and well maintained and more to the point, are in better order than many others.

The letter sent to Beverley Mussell was dated the 10th July yet not posted until 19th, received on Saturday the 21st and that any right of appeal expired on Monday 23rd! This has to be a travesty of the principles of English Law generally and of Tenant & Landlord Law specifically.

What's behind this is that the Council are anxious to sell off part of Allotment Site for Housing and we suspect want to remove the Mussells from the site as Bev in particular is a well known Anti-Housing campaigner.

Bev, a pensioner, grandmother and local Charity Voluntary worker is understandably distraught at her treatment by the Council.