Allotment Stuff > Allotment Movement

Waiting lists (and what to do about them)

(1/4) > >>

valentinelow:
I am a journalist on The Times (and an allotment holder), and am writing an article about allotment waiting lists.
Does anyone have particularly horrendous waiting lists in their area?
Also, is there anywhere where the allotment landlord - the council, or whatever - is doing something interesting to try to get the waiting list down?
It could be a good thing, or a bad thing...
Thanks,
Valentine Low

picman:
From my experience councils see allotments as a thorn in their sides , they put in as little resources as possible , even the officer looking after 15 sites locally is only supposed to spend half her time on allotment business, we spent 5 years of talking to them to try and get a site toilet , then did it ourselves with lottery money , some waiting lists are managed  by the site association and are closed when they get too long ( about 20) . One site has spare ground that could be bought back into lots of plots but the council seem unwilling to do it . whole thing needs a good shake up ... rant over  :icon_cheers: 

BarriedaleNick:
London checking in!  We are a private site, self run and our waiting list has been huge.  Over ten years.  Now we only accept applications at the start of the year and we are quite strict about people keeping in touch to stay on it.  Even so it could be years before you get a plot depending on how many people move on or die!
As we run our own site we have tried to promote smaller plots but there is only so small you can make them before they are useless for most.  We are also quite keen on removing those who don't garden or leave the weeds to go to seed so as to get new blood in but it isn't always quick or easy.

http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/openspaces/Documents/LewishamAllotmentInfo.pdf - details my local borough waiting times. However a mate got a plot immediately just down the road in Beckenham but then Kent's plots are all self managed. Similarly a mate in Welling got one with ease..

Ideally we need more land but here it really isn't going to work - there just isn't any space and we are lucky to have what we have.

valentinelow:
Thanks for your reply, Nick. Illuminating.

Digeroo:
We have had no official allotments for years.  Possibly about 35. They kept on looking for sights but never found any and then the list of people wanting them seemed to disappear. 
We are very lucky because a local farmer stepped in about six years ago.  So we are a private site and not technically allotments.  There are several plots available. 
The weed policy is a bit iffy, but we have to just cope with the weeds, they blow across from the fields and surrounding nature reserve anyway.
When someone leaves they plots are cleared so there is no need to sweat over an overgrown plot. 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page