ALLOTMENT holders have branded remarks made by the mayor of London as nonsense after he claimed their plots pose a terrorist threat to the Olympics...

ALLOTMENT holders have branded remarks made by the mayor of London as "nonsense" after he claimed their plots pose a terrorist threat to the Olympics.

Ken Livingstone made the comments during the Vanessa Feltz show on BBC London Radio 94.9 last Thursday, saying that the reason the Manor Garden allotments in Hackney Wick had to be moved was because terrorists could pose as gardeners and plant a bomb in the Olympic park.

The mayor made the comments in reply to a question from a caller who asked why the plots could not remain as part of the Olympic park.

"It's nonsense," said Julie Sumner, the secretary of the Manor Garden Allotments Society.

"I don't think any terrorist plotters are going to be particularly interested in our allotments as a place to focus their energies.

"Even if they did, what would a bomb buried in an allotment plot do?"

The mayor's office declined to comment on the remarks, but believed it was right for the Mr Livingstone to bring up the security issue.

However, Julie claimed Mr Livingstone admitted he could not get it right all the time when she spoke to him at a Greenpeace meeting on Tuesday.

The mayor's comments came just days before the LDA pulled out of a meeting with the allotment holders on Sunday after it emerged that the LDA had refused to attend the meeting after being told the plot holders were to stage a protest outside the meeting, filmed by the BBC.

The meeting had been scheduled to discuss submitting a fresh appeal to move the plot holders to Marsh Lane Fields in Leyton after their initial planning application was turned down by Waltham Forest Council last month.

A spokesman for the LDA has since issued an ultimatum to the plot holders saying they either support moving to the site, or face being made homeless.

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