NEIGHBOURS of a racquets club say they will fight any attempts at expansion.

People living near the David Lloyd Centre, off Baugh Road, Foots Cray, say they believe the centre wants to take all the land it can get its hands on.

They say the centre -- built on Green Belt land and now owned by brewing giant Whitbread -- has its eye on the Knoll Road allotment site and the grazing field next to the centre.

Last week the News Shopper reported the company had offered up to £800,000 for a piece of Bexley Council Green Belt land currently used to train motorcyclists, so that it could expand its car park.

Both the allotments and the grazing field are also owned by the council and in the Green Belt.

Wendy Walker has rented the field from Bexley for the past 10 years, now she has given the council six weeks notice to quit.

She says she is being forced out by the increasing cost of the field.

This year the rent went up by another £200, bringing the cost to £1,400 a year. Mrs Walker also has to pay her own and the council's legal costs and was told she would also have to pay to have the field chemically sprayed to get rid of horseradish.

Mrs Walker said she was warned by a council officer that the David Lloyd centre was looking for more land.

She told the News Shopper: "I feel we have been very slowly and painfully squeezed off this field and it is very unfair."

Arthur Pease lives in Caerleon Close, which backs onto he field. He is convinced there is a conspiracy between the centre and the council.

Anne Ridout also lives nearby. She believes the centre wants all the surrounding land.

She said: "I am horrified and so are my neighbours.

"I have the impression a lot is going on here behind the scenes. Doesn't the Green Belt mean anything these days?"

A council spokesman said there had been no decision to sell any land and a report on the situation would be made to councillors next week.

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