Help with getting hold of an allotment please!

[luckybear]

Hello,
I am desperate to get an allotment plot - I have been on the council waiting list for over a year and have moved up considerably although it's still not quick enough!
Was hoping to get some advice from you already-allotmenting folk regarding getting the council moving on this! We have visited the allotments recently and talked to an owner of one of them who said that there are loads of untended ones just lying there! Very frustrating. The council say they have to make sure they are untended, then evict, then clear the plots, etc.
I keep emailing the council regularly to chivvy them along, but so far no joy.

Any ideas???!!!

Thanks!

[doris]

Poor you its very frustrating! I sent the local council lots of letters with drawings of vegetables all over them...don't think it did a jot of difference, all our plots are allocated once a year...you may find an alotment holder willing to unoffically share their plot. Good luck!

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's always slow. Our local council won't normally evict them at this time of year, as nobody does much over the winter anyway, and most plots look pretty dire. Come May or June, it gets much easier if no work has been done. A lot then depends on the history of the tenant; if they've had a series of previous warnings, they're much more likely to be evicted.

[Old bird]

Hi Luckybear,

I think that you are doing the right thing but I would take it one step further and get the plot numbers of untended sites and go to the Council - use your charm to say how desperate that you are and how keen you are - get the person in charge of allotments wanting to help you!!

Make youself a pleasant nuisance! 

Armed with the information on which plot numbers aren't being worked go to the Council Meeting (obviously the allotments meeting) and have a polite please please word at the meeting - pointing out which plots are not being worked.

I, personally, wouldn't go the way of sliding onto someone else's plot as the potential for a fall out or them just giving up the plot and you losing all your produce would be too high!

See if you can find anyone else on the list and team up with them to ask, beg, implore (always nicely!) for a plot!

Best of luck

I am sure you will win - in the end.

Old Bird

::)

[jo9919]

I'm in the same position.

I put my name on the waiting list last year at number 40  ::)

There are so many people wanting allotments now that they're dividing them up into halves and quarters to get the waiting list going down quicker. I don't mind this, even a quarter would be great  ;D

Jo.

[Mr Smith]

Luckybear,
                This is the time of year when the councils go out to get their money in for the lotty rents, don't take any rubbish off them get down to the council office and kick some butt :)

[lillylottie]

just keep asking i did and we got one after six months so good luck.

[manicscousers]

hiya,luckybear, welcome to the site..take photos of the ones with rubbish on them, if there are any..there were 2 with abandoned cars on them when we were looking..send them to the allotment officer ..good luck, hope you get sorted quickly  ;D

[luckybear]

Wow, thanks guys for all these fantastic ideas! I am going to step up my quest for the allotment!

Like the ideas about photos and plot numbers - this is good evidence (at the moment I think they think I'm just making it up!)

Cheers folks!

;)

[Buster54]

Hi LuckyBear don't know where you are but it took me 3 weeks to get mine,on our(Barnsley)councils website it states that if you phone them they will tell you where the allotments are in your area  and if any have vacant plots on them,there are 8 vacant plots at the back of my house but I have opted for one 20 mins walk away as the ones near me have been that badly neglected you wouldn't even know they were there 8ft high brambles across the lot,my advise phone and ask where the empty plots are and when was the last time they did a site inspection as the one I got was a repossession due to neglect

[Columbus]

Hi,

I went round all the sites closest to where I live with a camera and went back to the council saying this is the plot I want and this is a picture of how it looks. Then they made a phone call and offered me something else.

I took it.  ;D

My second plot - I again wrote to them about a neglected half plot I wanted as it was next to my first plot. Again they immediately offered me something else.

I took that too.  ;D

I think it helps to be specific and persistant then they give you something to shut you up.

Norwich city councils idea of preparing a plot to rent is to pay contracters £1000 to take away all the top soil ("In case theres asbestos") or paying the same to a charity group to strim away brambles then leaving them all to grow back.

Theres £2000 of council tax well spent.  >:(

Col

[Debenvalley]

I got a list from the council parks department of all the sites in the area. I started with the closest site, phoning the secretary trying to find a plot. I moved further and further away until I found a site with any free plots. The plots available were all wrecks so I took the one with the nearest water tap and got stuck in with clearing it !

With such demand at the moment its strange there still seems to be quite a high number of 'vacant' plots which haven't been worked for years but as the rent is paid they don't get evicted. I've got plots both side of mine which haven't been worked for several years - I'd love to have some neighbours !

[luckybear]

Hey Columbus! I am in Norwich, interesting what you said about the council here...this is maybe the problem?!!!!
I am quite willing to clear a plot myself  - the exercise would do me  and my friends some good!

Which allotments are you on?

[Columbus]

Hi luckybear,

I am at woodlands on the top end of dereham rd, city side of the roundabout,
(where the pipe is going through) we have several unworked plots.
Call in a see us. I`m where you will see green debris netting. plots 21 and 28.

Col

[Whatever next?]

I got mine through searching the council website. Bradford list all plots that are available. They give you a site name, plot number, street map and a site map of the whole site with plot numbers, taps etc. I think it's updated once a month.

You don't say where you are so I can't have a quick look for you.

Good luck, John

[ipt8]

Hi
Have you thought to search for someone who would not mind you using part of there garden, I would have thought some people would be grateful for their gardens being used and maybe have some company or a new friend ?

[heyho]

I was very lucky to get one. Had been in touch with the council a number of times and told they were all full. Then e:mailed them and was given the number of the local allotment society. Rang them up and I had a plot in 24 hours.

Turns out that they had aquired the allotments where I managed to get one from the council who had left it unattended and it had turned into a jungle (I have seen an aerial photo from 2 years ago which shows this). They got the council to clear the whole site and treat it (there is now 15 ft pile of rubbish at the bottom of the plots) and it was first come first served.

I was very lucky but it is worth getting in the any local society rather than the council.

[caseylee]

When I was looking I was told all the sites were full and I was put on a waiting list, it was only by chance that someone looked at the books correctly and found that the site I have now had overa dozen plots avail.  They forget that there are empty plots sometimes, so you need to investigate further.  When I got to my site, I found that there was only me there on  a site of 13 plots.  10 plots were vacant. You need to harass them over and over to get some where

[Mr Smith]

I hope you folks do  not have the problem I'm having at the moment with my council when you finally get hold of an allotment, what they have done is allocated a lotty to me and  it turns out that the OS drawing  of the allotments are not correct not the OS fault but the council not keeping up with the times because the allotments have over the years moved about(their words not mine), there is no way I'm going to move off this year in fact this allotment was last dug four years ago but rent is being paid on it I hope the person who is paying this rent is willing to move down one and continue to pay for a load of scrub, :)

[becs]

I have been on one waiting list for 4 1/2 years now....  as I am in the adjacent parish .. I am automatically at the bottom of the list to anyone in the parish where the allotments are  :(    I have managed to find a private run allotments (again in an adjacent parish) and have got my name down (and am top of list) but now have to wait until someone gives their plot up....  I could be waiting a very long time :(

Our council is apparently sourcing some land for allotments in my parish but they will be the other side of town to me (and the 2 I am on the list for are much closer) and I cannot find out who to contact about these new plots.... 
....