Local residents have launched a petition against the closure of Teddington's only allotments for the purpose of cemetery expansion.

Richmond Council approved its planning application to close Shacklegate Lane allotments to extend the cemetery next door in December last year.

The application sought permission for the "Change of use from allotments to cemetery use, including soft landscaping and associated works".

However, it received 33 objections from local residents who will miss having the allotments as they are the only allotments in Teddington and have been there for around 100 years.

The petition, which was launched this week, asks the council to "Reconsider its decision to reclaim the Shacklegate Lane Allotments to extend Teddington Cemetery".

The petition description reads: "The Shacklegate Lane allotment site was established over 120 years ago, and is the last remaining site in Teddington. The provision of allotments in Teddington was greatly reduced when the cemetery was last expanded.

"The London borough of Richmond has the best allotment provision (1,223 plots per 100k residents) in London, but despite this, demand for allotments across Richmond is huge, with all sites in the borough having long waiting lists of several years.

"With new land for this purpose being difficult to find, it does not make any sense to let an existing site go.

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 "Although we acknowledge that there is a need for further burial spaces, we believe that claiming back the Shacklegate Lane allotment site is just a short term solution to the longer term problem of burial space.

"We would like to see our council do what some other London boroughs have done and develop a long term and sustainable burial plan, including exploring options for creating burial space, that do not involve taking away allotment land.

 "This once beautiful allotment site has become run down as the council has not rented plots (as they became vacant) to residents on the waiting list. This is in contrast to the councils declared allotment policy."

It adds: "Please help our community to keep Teddington's last remaining allotment site by signing this petition. Once these allotments are gone, they are gone forever. Thank you very much for your support."

The petition already has 100 signatures and can be viewed here.

The local Green Party also recently shared its opposition to the council's plans.