A Bridgwater woman paid out £1,000 in legal fees to avoid losing the plot - at an allotment.

Sarah Ireland, 40, was asked to vacate her three plots on an allotment off Cromwell Road because the Bridgwater Allotment Association said she had not maintained them.

But she fought against the decision with the help of a solicitor and was allowed to keep one patch, on the condition she gave up two others.

Mrs Ireland, a caterer at Robert Blake Science College, said: “They said I hadn't cultivated the land but I was down there all the time.

“I don't regret paying out the money to fight to keep it. I've had it for years and didn't want to lose it. I'm happy to go down there and grow my vegetables. That's all I want to do.”

Mrs Ireland said she had tended the plots for ten years and used them to grow fruit and vegetables to make chutneys and pickles.

The association's secretary, Rachel Owens, said people were asked to move out if they failed to look after their plots.

She said: “It states in the rules that if plots aren't tended to properly then the policy can be terminated.”

She also said there had been a long running dispute with Mrs Ireland.