The century-old right of people to demand an allotment from their council may be abolished by the Government under plans to scale back red tape, it emerged yesterday.

Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, is examining plans to free local authorities from a 103-year-old obligation to provide plots of public land for cultivation by gardeners. The proposals could see local authorities, many of them strapped for cash under government-imposed cuts, selling off allotment land for social housing or even for profit to major companies.

The move has triggered a wave of protest from allotment society members and gardeners, who have lobbied Mr Pickles to rethink the plans.

The Independent on Sunday, backed by the nation's leading gardeners and chefs, today launches a campaign, Dig for Victory, to force ministers to safeguard the public right to allotments. For more than a century, the allotment has been stitched into the fabric of British life, celebrated in the Second World War Dig for Victory campaign, the self-sufficiency movement represented by the 1970s comedy The Good Life, and the current enthusiasm for growing your own.

To join the campaign mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or write to Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London, SW1E 5DU

Because of the zeal to cut local government bureaucracy, section 23 of the 1908 Smallholdings and Allotments Act, which orders that councils must provide sufficient number of plots to local residents where there is demand, is on a target list of "burdensome" regulations. The move comes just weeks after Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, proposed a sell-off of the nation's forests, which led to a humiliating U-turn after an outcry from green campaigners.

Demand for allotments across the country is so huge since the grow-your-own movement mushroomed in the past decade that many councils have been forced to close waiting lists. Some gardeners are waiting up to 10 years for a plot – highlighting the national enthusiasm for growing fruit and vegetables.

The proposals are all the more surprising given claims by ministers that the Government is one of the greenest ever. David Cameron has spoken of his love of growing veg at his Oxfordshire home. He has also urged us to embrace his vision for the Big Society – a sense of community already familiar to allotment plot-holders.

The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners and the grow-your-own community organisation Landshare, set up by the River Cottage chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, are spearheading opposition to the plans. Fearnley-Whittingstall said yesterday: "You can't overestimate the importance of allotments to urban communities. They're absolutely vital for social development, health and well-being. It's about more than just putting two veg on the family table; they're about community spirit. At a time when the country has plenty of other things to complain about, the Government goes after allotments at its peril."

Pippa Greenwood, a gardening expert and panellist on Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, said: "A climate of cutting back in the number of allotments doesn't bear thinking about. In many allotment sites there are people of all sizes and shapes, nationalities, ages, all in one area learning to get on together and enjoy one another's company. It is quite unbelievable that anybody can be so far removed from reality even to contemplate something that might reduce their number."

Ian White, 50, a computer programmer who has grown vegetables at One Tree Hill allotments in Honor Oak, south London for 12 years, said his plot was now part of everyday life for his family, including daughters Roberta, four, and Nico, two: "Just yesterday our family had a major seed planting day. It is very useful at other times of the year when there is not much outdoor activity, like on a winter's day, to get them to wrap up well and go to the allotment for half an hour. It gets them out in the fresh air."

The 1908 legislation applies to England and Wales. In Scotland there is no such obligation, although the demand for land is not as great. The law does not apply in London because competition for space is so high.

Inviting responses from the public, the Department for Communities and Local Government says: "To date we have identified 1,294 statutory duties that central government currently places on local authorities, the majority of which arise from primary legislation – and we are aware that at this stage it is not a complete list.

"We are inviting you to comment on the duties and to challenge government on those which you feel are burdensome or no longer needed."

The TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh said: "In an age of technology when more and more we're disconnected from the earth, it's so important to have a space to grow your own food, to know its history, know it's healthy; in that sense growing your own is the sharp end of environmentalism. It would be very sad if the Government did anything to take away people's ability to do that. I hope it doesn't happen."