WITNEY allotment holders have been waiting 18 months to take over the town’s plots.

The town council offered Witney Allotment Association the opportunity to take over management of the sites in June 2010.

The group sent a final version of the lease to the council last September but so far it has not heard back from the authority.

Association secretary Maggie Perrin said: “It’s very frustrating. It says a lot for David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ when you are trying as a group to do something for the community and you are stymied.”

The association hoped to have taken over the allotments, in Lakeside, Hailey Road and Newland, by November, but now hopes the handover can take place in April, if the council is ready to sign the lease shortly.

The agreement will see the association pay a peppercorn rent to the council and take over responsibility for site management, maintenance and rent collection.

The association hopes the deal will cut administration costs, helping it to hold down rents and allow the group to search for new allotment sites. In 2010, there were more than 200 people on a waiting list for plots in the town.

No-one was available from the town council to respond to requests for comment.