Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => Locations and Sites => Topic started by: gingerninja38 on January 21, 2006, 22:41:20
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am 23 on the list :'( the big boss man on the site i want said that they were considering splitting any new plots in to half plots to get down the waiting list but still might have to wait 2 years :( ah well will have to make do with my container lottie in the back yard!
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Two years' wait here too.... Still looking in seed catalogues tho! How keen is that?
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how did you get on your list and when did you go on it im trying to get an allotment but im going round the bend
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i went on our local council website and looked up allotments, i then rang the number listed for the chair of the committee at the site i wanted and asked to put my name on the waiting list. i went down today to have a look it's a big site 52 plots can't wait to get one!!
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We have 110 plots with currently a waiting list of 25(ish), all large plots are split in two as they become available. People with half plots are offered full plots if there neighbour/share person gives up. It's a system that works well because even our half plots are quite large.
I suppose the waiting lists are due to allotments being more "fashionable" nowdays.
Ian
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Our allotments are run by the town council. I found their e-mail address and mailed them. They got back to me a day later. So it was easy to get on the list: 29 people waiting for 25 allotments! But the town council has bought a new site which is twice the size and should be available by late 2007, hence the 2 year wait. Problem of course is that they want to sell the existing allotments for housing so that issue needs to be agreed upon first.
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after all the advice from this site i phoned round and iv now got a site start on sunday ;D my advice like from every one here would be keep ringing round
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In Cambridge there's a three and a half year waiting list for council-run allotments. However, several of the larger allotment sites are run by associations. I rang one, and got my plot three days later. A bunch of friends took the plot next door the day they came to see if there was one free!
If all the plots in your city are council-run then you might have a bit of a wait. However I have heard of people taking on plots by leaving begging notes at sites that had overgrown plots, by volunteering to help on plots that were getting a bit much for their original tenants, and just generally being persistent. This might well be worth a go if there's a small site near you that you really really want to get on to. :)
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I'm on waiting lists for 2 allotments right near me, one council, one private. Hoping not to have too much longer of a wait. The council reckon we are near the top, and the private dude I spoke to today says we're about 6th on the list, and he's hoping that when all the rents are collected (was sposed to be Sunday gone) he will get a fair way down the list. Where I live, people don't seem to realise what veg are, let alone where they come from before they make it to supermarket shelves :o so we don't have huge lists. Lucky! ;D ;D ;D
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In Elton it's the plots that are on the waiting list! ;D There are 38 available and just dying to be used, they look forlorn and neglected. If the powers that be would clear the jungle next to mine I'd take on that as well.
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same here Ani ...
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:) :) It took my locaal authority two weeks to sort out the paperwork for my lottie. The key was sent through the post for me to view, i had the choice of 22 plots, so took one next to another, to make a double, was allowed to start on it before any agreements were signed, and i am the only lottie holder apart from one.
I can not understand why there are no other lottie holders, as it is a nice site, not too noisy, by Heathrow, site of 23, 20 not being used. May be there will be more interest when people see it being used more.
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in bradford they cannot give the plots away i rang one day got the site plan the next signed up day after had a whole choice to pick from were only about 20 occupied on the whole site
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There is not one for love or money around my way. Local council done away three years ago with what was here prior to me moving in.
Starting out to discover others who would would want one and go at the council ::)
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We have both problems, There is a waiting list for the ''plum'' allotments, yet there are around 15 overgrown jungles that have been empty for years, which no one wants to take on.
If the council cleared them they would have more chance?
Best suggestion that has been put forward is to half the size of them to at least give someone a fighting chance. The Local council make enthusiastic noises but very little ever gets done.
Also (I think it was Bryan) got a key through the post?? We did not get a Key, Nor a door, or a gate , or a fence, and it took us two years to clear it.
But it was the one we wanted closest to where we live. Now we are ;D ;D ;D
Moriwaki
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Yes, it was me that got the key through the post.
The site is overgrown, brambles 9ft high, but the local authority cleared one side, 11 plots, which is where mine are, and left the others. Not to worry, loads of wild blackberries for the picking.
The local authority also offer to rotovate the land for you, on signing of agreement, but i decided to dig the cooch grass out by hand, rather than have it come back in avengence during the year.
As i have said in my previous posting on this topic, maybe they will be used more, once people see them being used. The locals have been watching what is going on, and have been asking me questions about how you can get one.
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I live in a very small ex mining town (pop 3500) here in south wales there are 5 allotment sites three are full with waiting lists the site im on has 18 plots with only 1 free very overgrown plot. Anyone out there living near New Tredegar ?
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i'm struggling to get a plot opposite our house, there's about 16 plots and one man apparantly has got 5 of them, when i said this to the council they were ok with it!!!! even though plots are supposed to be for your own family consumption, how big is his flaming family???? ??? ???
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there's about 16 plots and one man apparantly has got 5 of them
littlegem where we come from they call these people farmers.
Surely the council should be encouraged to share the available land
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no, i've just been on the phone to them and i'm next in line! and i repeated to her about the one bloke having at least five and she said that was ok, if he cultivated and paid for them he could have as many as he wanted!!!!! bit unfair!
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Having an Allotment seems to be more popular than every before. When I put my name down over three years ago at our site, there was only three people on the list, so we got ours within a couple of weeks. At our site at the moment, we have had to start breaking up the plots into halves, so more people have access to them. We currently have 39 people on our waiting list which means a two years wait. busy_lizzie
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i've been talking to a couple of blokes form the plots and they say there is a bloke who has five! but is doing one blokes who has run off from his missus and doesn't want to do his plot anymore but can't find him. so i phoned the council and she gave me the site stewards number, which i phoned, they said he was away all week so i phoned again today and the woman said they had split up and didn't know where he was. so when it comes to - the plot that was being done by someone else was the site stewards who had run off with some other woman! nobody knows where he is, he has to tell the council himself he doesn't want the plot! but where is he, the guy thats doing his plot doesn't want to do it and i'm waiting for a plot there! its worse than eastenders!!! even though the council own the plots, its very much an inside job with it all, when you consider that one guy is doing 5 plots and there is no one on record with 5 plots! ??? very clicky!!!! >:(
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I finally got a reply from the land factor that deals with the allotments where I want a plot. They are privately owned by a building company, and managed by the factor. I wrote last August - no response - and again early this month.
Says they are all taken, and he will let me know when one is surrendered. By which I assume he means there is no waiting list.
I walked through there tonight, and spotted two definitely badly neglected plots, and that was just in half of the site. So I'm going to have to wait'n'see. Luckily I've recently got a loan of a third of a plot from a chap who has a lottie on the same site, and can't manage it all.
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Little Gem and Denbee, good luck with trying to get a plot. It does seem unececessarily complicated and beaurocratic. Don't give up though, I am sure the longer you persist the more the chances are you will get one. busy_lizzie
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I waited 2 years for my plot, but it was down to the Parish Clerk being rubbish at his job & only when he was done for embezzlement & a new chap put in did 6 half plots suddenly get allocated.
Our resident expert has 5 plots, but it's a tricky one. I was "chief organiser" for a while when we were having trouble with the parish & I tried to get him to give one up. He refused. His view was, he paid for them & worked them all ( beautifully I have to say) and he took them over when no-one else wanted them, he's worked hard on the to get tillable soil ( heavy clay beside the railway lines - bl***y hard work) and put in the time & effort to stop the site becoming derelict & being handed back to the railway.
I can understand his view about he effort - I had to give up my plot when I moved and it's all overgrown now. And insult to injury, my new council doesn't provide allotments. Whaaaaaaaaaa.
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Why after all these years are people suddenly getting interested ?
Its great for the allotment movement, but there seems to be something rather "sheepy" about it.
Is it a fad ? I hope not
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Froglets, isn't your council legally obliged to supply allotments?
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Hmm, not heard that one. The allotments I was chief nagger for last time round were provided by the parish, but funded by an amenities grant from local funds. They were rented from the railway for us and could clearly be handed back at any time - which was why I got involved to negotiate keeping them on.
I will phone the council again and see if I can nag this lot.......
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Don't take this as gospel (it's me starting from no knowledge to gaining but a little), but from what I've been able to find on the internet this morning, the Smallholdings and Allotments Act of 1908 places a duty on local authorities to provide sufficient allotments, according to demand. As far as I can see, it hasn't been repealed, though it has been supplemented with later acts. See this webpage.
http://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/libraries/templates/havingfun.asp?URN=2093&FolderID=0 (http://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/libraries/templates/havingfun.asp?URN=2093&FolderID=0)
Worth checking it out if your local authority doesn't provide any. Also check their website. Ours has a section on allotments.
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an update re: quote below.
Spoke to the guy with 5 plots, very nice bloke, and his fellow allotmenteer. He doesn't want the plot and he's just been maintaining it anyway so the weeds don't go onto his next to it, which he no longer wants to do (76 yrs young and been ill) the site steward has been missing for nearly 3 years! and they said i should phone the council, tell them that the plot is being neglected and i should get it.!
Phoned the council and updated them. now you think they'd say, "oh right i'll do my best to sort this out for you" but no, she tried saying that there was a bloke who phoned a week before me although she previously told me he'd taken another plot so was off the list and i was first! I mentioned this, then she said that if plot was well kept there was nothing they could do, i then mentioned that it wouldn't be anymore and it wasn't him doing it anyway. she then said she might have to serve a notice, i then mentioned that it wouldn't be replied as no-one (including wife) knew where he was! she then said that she'd have to get a decision off this other bloke at council, i then mentioned that he'd already told me that she dealt with allotments!
I now realise that its's not always inside jobs with allotmenteers! they do actually want me to have the plot, and have already been offering me advise and seeds etc. its the council who can't be arsed, have no common sense and daren't do anything in case they get into trouble!! ??? >:(
She tried to find every excuse in the book as to why i shouldn't have the plot, and i have no idea why? ???
i've been talking to a couple of blokes form the plots and they say there is a bloke who has five! but is doing one blokes who has run off from his missus and doesn't want to do his plot anymore but can't find him. so i phoned the council and she gave me the site stewards number, which i phoned, they said he was away all week so i phoned again today and the woman said they had split up and didn't know where he was. so when it comes to - the plot that was being done by someone else was the site stewards who had run off with some other woman! nobody knows where he is, he has to tell the council himself he doesn't want the plot! but where is he, the guy thats doing his plot doesn't want to do it and i'm waiting for a plot there! its worse than eastenders!!! even though the council own the plots, its very much an inside job with it all, when you consider that one guy is doing 5 plots and there is no one on record with 5 plots! ??? very clicky!!!! >:(
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Why have things got to be so much more complicated than they need to be? Was the person you spoke to the Allotments Officer? Sounds as though she was covering her tracks who ever it was and hasn't been doing her job properly. You could always try to get your local councillor on your side to get it sorted out. Stick with it! Be determined and persistant, and I would frequent the site a lot and keep a dialogue going with the other plot holders. busy_lizzie
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Little Gem
If you feel really strongly about this and refuse to be fobbed off, why not involve your local Councillor. It is after all election time - my experience is that when a Councillor contacts council staff for info, they get a straight answer straight away.
My plot had not been worked for 2 years, but because the previous tenant had paid their annual rent, that was it as far as the Allotment Officer was concerned.
Good luck - persistence pays
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the woman at the council said there is nothing she can do, the steward has his rates up to date. and cos the plot is tidy (the other bloke has been cultivating it mainly to keep weeds down) they can't serve a notice. So the blokes at the allotment said just do it anyway, at least it won't go to rack and ruin and no-one else has time to tend to it. they said as far as the council are corncerned, the steward is doing it, and as far as the steward is concerned, the bloke he asked to do it is doing it! if you can understand that. And that's the story we are all sticking to, i might be taking a risk, but the bloke on the allotment have got my back covered. Very impressed with their genorosity and support!
So tomorrow i'm going to get cracking with it! ;D
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in bradford they cannot give the plots away i rang one day got the site plan the next signed up day after had a whole choice to pick from were only about 20 occupied on the whole site
could you let me know how and where to go about it in bradford? also is there a list of sites anywhere?
thanks,
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Just an Observation on this thread, the 1908 Act has not been repealed and places a statuatory (?) LEGAL obligation on councils to provide allotments if more than 5 people petition... We are a private site but the bit about councillors being a good start is valid. Even your local MP can put pressure on, ours is one M Beckett, and until her recent job change was most helpful! With Agenda 21 they would struggle to deny you, Area panel meetings are a good place to put your face in and get things moving!
:)
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i dont think more people are wanting allotments being just a fad, i think more people are sick of the rubbish they sell in super markets being taste less and no good after a day or so at home and also getting very expensive, they think why not grow them there self, i know i did and am i so glad i did , wish i had got a plot years ago , its my only form of exercise and boy after a hard day at work i no one way to chill out , down on the plot.
its cheaper then the gym , its more fun , learn new things all the time and get to eat and taste food how it should be.