Hi everybody.
I am very wary of this topic as I don't know chapter and verse of the law and would not be up to quoting it. I am sure that as you say "by law councils have to provide a site" but in practice this is becoming less and less possible.
I am thinking central London. There just isn't the land available at any price. I cannot imagine councils spending many thousands of pounds on fields that they can then rent to allotmenteers at £25 per year or so per plot including water.
Who will fund the purchase of the plots - certainly not the rents that are charged and then the local people that pay their council tax to the Councils will start kicking off if they are "subsidising" new allotments.
I don't automatically knock Council's as they can only do so much. I do agree that they ought to be more in touch with the space that they already have got but I cannot imagine many will be stumping up many thousands of pounds to set up many new allotment sites.
Good luck to any that want them - but these are my views!
Old Bird