Topic: Waiting List

[Mortality]

I'm still on my Local council waiting list for an allotment been waiting for approx 2 and a half years now and according to the council lady today im 14th on the list out of 67 for the closest allotment .... come on !! 

[tomatoada]

I can't understand waiting lists.   We have 2 empty plots and 2 1/2 ones empty on the site where I am.   There is suppose to be a waiting list.   So why aren't they taken?

[Hi_Hoe]

Councils seem to be pretty slow in every department, not just allotments!

We have maybe half a dozen or more empty, which are just getting blighted by vandalism, fires, tipping etc, and the council tells the lady who lives opposite my allotment that they are all taken??! (Theyre clearly not)!!! Shes been waiting for a similar time - around 2 years - and still gertting nowhere??!  Madness!!!

Hang in there, Mortality (?) - At least your not waiting the 40 years it takes in London 

[Kleftiwallah]

It seems the council must allow years of neglect of allotments to allow them to be covered with twitch grass, nettles and weeds before they qualify for a new holder!

Cheers,   Tony.

[Squash64]

Our allotments are Self-Managed.  We currently have three half-size plots and one quarter-size available to rent.
I have informed the allotments dept. at our council and they will pass any enquirers on to me.  I am also
advertising in our local library and doctors' surgeries and a small advert in our local community magazine.

I think it may be different for us because we are SM and we can be pro-active about letting our plots.

[tomatoada]

We are having letters offering for us to go SM.  There are only 24 plots and no one is keen to take it on.  We are a friendly bunch and except for getting the plots taken we are happy with things as they are.   Would anyone advise us to go SM?

[Esplanade]

I'm still on my Local council waiting list for an allotment been waiting for approx 2 and a half years now and according to the council lady today im 14th on the list out of 67 for the closest allotment .... come on !! 

Have you considered writing to the allotment officer at the council by registered letter, to tell them that you're fed up of waiting and that you intend to take possession of plot x on dd/mm/yy before the weeds get any bigger and another year of your life is wasted. Include a photo of course to show them how bad it is. tell them that you'll wait 21 days for them to respond..

daft idea of course but if a plot is empty and has been empty for years, I doubt that they'd do anything at all. Have a little tidy up to make your mark on it and then wait a bit. seems dafter not to do anything!

dont forget to send them your address too, so that they can send you the rent bill. When you have that - its a done deal.

our story is on the forum 'frustrated newbies' and its a similar story. they eventually said 'take it' in an email, we still havent signed anything or seen the bill yet, absolute bumbling incompetents at the council.

[Hi_Hoe]

"absolute bumbling incompetents at the council." Stellar!!

At council job interviews, they must weed out normal, sane rational people and employ the complete friggin' idiots!!!

[elvis2003]

We are SM and it works very well,esp in managing the waiting list,as soon as a plot becomes vacant it will be reassigned the very same day,in most cases.

[kt.]

We are SM and it works very well,esp in managing the waiting list,as soon as a plot becomes vacant it will be reassigned the very same day,in most cases.

Same here.

[steve1967]

Its the same at our site. The council insist there is a waiting list but are so slow to allocate. We had a young couple turn up last summer armed with a brushcutter cleared the half plot they were allocated and havnt been back since. The plot is still empty and waiting for a tennant along with two other half plots.

I am hoping these get allocated early spring as they are so overgrown it puts people of when they see the work involved before they even think of planting.

Is self managed the same as an association? The reason I ask is there has been no interest amongst other plotholders to form an association. But if we could manage the waiting list for the council we could get plots allocated far quicker.

[Digeroo]

I am surprised Squash that you do not have a hugely long waiting list.  I would love to have a plot on your site.

A well run SM site seems to be great, they know which plots are not being worked. Though I presume it is a lot of work for the committees.   But then there are the tales of other sites with self motivated committee members who move their friends up the waiting list and behave like little hittlers and have ways of making life difficult if your face does not fit.
 
Many moons ago I was on the committee of my local play group and however hard we tried someone always complained.   Put me off being on a committee ever again.   The people who complained the most seemed to do the least. 

[BarriedaleNick]

We are an association so we run it all ourselves (with me as sec).
Our waiting list, if we left it open, would be massive so we only have it open for a month or two each year.  At one point a few years ago we had so many people on the list that they would have been waiting 10-15 years for a plot.  Of course being in London people move on quite quickly so a lot of people on the list evaporate.  It is very easy for us to rent out plots because the lettings sec is on the ball - as soon as someone leaves - the next on the list is contacted and the handover can be very quick.  We rarely have vacnat plots and if we do it is only vbecause they have been abandoned and we havent been infomed officially.  It also works well because we are on site and can see what is going on, who is having issues, who might need a bit of help etc.  Of course at times it is a massive pain in the arse - our old lettings sec was in the butchers buying sausages when some disgruntled plot holder started shouting at him about how useless we were.  Plus we have to meet and have an AGM, maintain the site etc
Overall it is quite rewarding and site days can be a great time to get to know everyone.

[grawrc]

We are self-managed too and I am secretary. Being self-managed does mean that things get done much faster and if there's a problem there's usually a committee member to hand.

I contact everyone on the waiting list in February (most by email or phone - a few by post) to check they are still interested and their contact details are still the same.

We allocate quarter or half plots to new members for a 6 month trial  period. If they are successful they can then move on to a full plot when one is available. If not either they are asked to leave, choose to leave or have their trial period extended.

[Squash64]

I am surprised Squash that you do not have a hugely long waiting list.  I would love to have a plot on your site.

...and we would love to have you here!

It's the first time in about eight years that we haven't had a waiting list.  It could
be that the increase in rent has put some people off, who knows?  I did let one of
our small plots this week to someone who had read the community magazine so
maybe it will pick up soon.  Another thing could be that many people think there
is a massively long waiting list and so don't bother putting their names down.

[elvis2003]

Out of interest, I was looking through our waiting list the other day...in 2010 I added 48 names to our list, 2011 only 18 names went on, and during 2012 only 12 people requested to be added. Wonder why there is such a big difference between 2010 and 2012??
Saying that our list would be ginormous if 48 went on EVERY year, it stands at 79 as it is and we only have 36 plots!

[Digeroo]

We do not have a waiting list, and several plots became available but there is a stready trickle of people coming to see them.  I expect they will all be taken soon as people immerge from hibernation.   I agree that I think last year has put people off, but actually some people did really well on our site particuarly the early shift.  There were many days the rain did not start until mid morning.   

[grawrc]

Our council has opened at least one more site locally and there have been a few other initiatives locally to get people together to grow food. I think these may have affected the numbers joining the waiting list as well as very poor weather last year.

We have had no new additions to the list since October. Our waiting list is now down to 20 with the person at the top having joined the list in September 2011. In the past there have been over 60 with waiting times up to  4 years. We have reallocated 27 plots this year.

[BAK]

Our waiting list peaked at 19 in February 2009 ... stood at 14 in Feb 2010 ... and as far as I am aware is negligible (2 or 3) at the moment.

I have wittered about this before ... enthusiasm for allotments on our site has diminished, as the numbers indicate. The weather in 2012 will no doubt exacerbate the decline but it is not the sole reason.

In my opinion the recent allotment hype (2004 onwards?) has run out of steam. Word of mouth (from people who tried it and fell by the wayside when they found that it was hard work) is limiting additions to the waiting list, particularly among young mums in this neck of the woods who were originally very keen.

Enthusiam for plots will no doubt increase once again but I will be (pleasantly) surprised if it is anytime soon.

[chriscross1966]

I noticed today that Swindon has reopened a lot of waiting lists on its sites, a few years ago they were pretty much all closed except for one or two adn I got really lucky.... I do think that smaller plots for people who want to duip a toe is a very good idea, I knew what I was getting into and cheerfully took on 10 poles of land that needed breaking in, but we've had folks on our site with only 5 poles struggling even though there's two of them sharing... I think that they weren't prepared for the tough bit at the start....