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Waiting lists (and what to do about them)

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Digeroo:
We now have no waiting list as there are several available plots.  We had not turn over for about four years.  Soil very fertile to start with but then some people were getting very poor crop and gave up:  when the soil ran out of nutrients in my opinion.  But also they did not know just how much work was needed. 

The seed packet say sow the seed and then when to harvest, nothing about what needs to be done in between.

We are on a private site, no council run allotments here for about 35 years.  Previous ones had footpath through so were constantly vandalised.

andyswarbs:
Our waiting list is generally less than 10 and sometimes down to 2 or 3. We're a village of 2,500 homes with a clear mandate to serve those homes.

Beersmith:
Medium sized town in the Midlands.

Across the whole town, no problem at all getting a plot. Getting a plot on the site of your choosing is an entirely different matter. Some sites are more prone to thefts and vandalism, some have pest issues especially rabbits, and the ones with a proportion of badly maintained plots are less popular. These sites have plots readily available.

But a newly opened site not far from where I live was massively over subscribed with reportedly more than 50 on the waiting list.  The best sites, well kept with few untended plots, tend to have waiting lists but not long enough to qualify for the nightmare scenarios of having to wait decades.

At present my own site seems nicely balanced. It is large with a good proportion of elderly and retired plot holders, so each year natural turnover frees up a few plots as advancing age means people downsize, going say from two plots to just one or from a large plot to a smaller one, or give up entirely. Add a few others who perhaps lose interest and an odd eviction for non cultivation and you probably get between 6 and 10 plots becoming available each year. With a waiting list of roughly similar size few applicants have to wait long, six months or less. Fussy applicants- must be near a gate / next to a water trough / want a shed / etc sometimes have to wait a bit longer. Less fussy - don't mind clearing an overgrown plot - and it can be just a few weeks.

So the situation in my locality is one of considerable variation. A few with long waiting lists, some with waiting lists but not long, and some with plots available albeit perhaps overgrown and needing some hard work.

johhnyco15:
here on the sunshine coast we have a very high number of older people however people are a lot fitter and have more than one hobby so time even though they are retaired are a premium so to combat this we have turned 2 plots into 6 thirds roughly 14 mtrs x 4 mtrs and a shed they have gone down a storm and a year in all let and very well looked after and the waiting list has shrunk by 6 sometimes i think smaller is the way forward as the days of people working local and having a weekend to pop to plots alas seems to be no more peopleare working longer, longer hours and travel time has increased all of which is taken from ieisure time hope this helps

ACE:
The local council allotment site is full and a long waiting list, they have recently restricted the letting of available plots to the town only and not the surrounding areas. I rent from a private site out of town and they have just re-let 5 plots due to retirements and non cultivation, but still have 2 empty. Even with offering them to the council owned waiting list we are too far out of town for people to commit to. Most village houses on the isle of wight have good size gardens compared to the town postage stamps.

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