PARISH councillors are reluctant to take on responsibility for run-down allotments which could land them with hefty repair bills.

Dene Valley and Witton-le-Wear parish councils, and Tow Law Town Council, are taking a stand against Wear Valley District Council in a dispute over which authority should take responsibility for the upkeep of allotments in their villages.

All three councils say that the district council has given them two weeks' notice for them to take over the responsibility for the land, which will include collecting rents and making repairs.

But the district council says it has given the parish councils at least a year's notice and that they cannot refuse to take the allotments on because the land is their responsibility by law.

Chairman of Dene Valley Parish Council, Councillor Chris Foote Wood, said he felt the district council had dumped the allotments on the smaller authorities to rid itself of what has become a huge financial burden.

He said: "My members of the parish council are adamant that we won't accept the allotments until they are put into good order. We are shocked to see just how run- down and dilapidated they are.

"Many of them are derelict and need new fencing, new paths and new gates.

"They need a tremendous amount of money spending on them, and it is money we don't have.

"Why should we have to pay for what amounts to 50 years of neglect by the district council?''

Deputy leader of the district council, Councillor Neil Stonehouse, said Dene Valley and Witton-le-Wear councils should have taken over the allotments when they were established as authorities in 1999.

He said: "Dene Valley came to us last year with a request for deferment and we agreed that. They wrote to us and thanked us and agreed that they would take over in April 2002. They just want the power without the responsibility."

Jenny Flynn, from Tow Law Town Council, said members felt the district had given very little help with the takeover which will be very complicated.

She said: "They had mentioned it last year, but now suddenly they are saying you are taking them over."