Loooonnnnngggg waiting lists......

[deborah]

Bleurgh.... I was trying not to get my hopes built up, but still......there are 3 lots of allotments in my local area. The waiting lists for 2 of them are huge.



I know that every area is different, but just out of curiosity, how long did you wait for an allotment ?

[Helsbells]

I waited for three months.

[linzibean]

I'm still waiting, two years on...

[Berti]

whew........I am surprised. maybe it matters where you live, and how many allotments there are available?
Here you don't have to wait at all.....they know I am coming and will have an appointment this month.
I live in a little town so the demand is not very high.

berti

[Shabba]

A lot of people I know have had problems getting allotments. I don't have one myself but learned a very interesting piece of info the other day. I got "River Cottage Spring" on dvd for christmas and according to (his highness) HFW, if a group of people get together and approach their local council asking for land on which to grow food the council are obliged to provide it! I'm not sure exactly how big a group it needs to be but if you could get some like-minded friends together that might be a way of "jumping the queue". Apparently it could end up being any old piece of waste ground that needs loads of work to get it up to standard but it is land nonetheless. It seemed unlikely to me but HFW stated it as fact so you can blame him if it's not true!

[deborah]

A lot of people I know have had problems getting allotments. I don't have one myself but learned a very interesting piece of info the other day. I got "River Cottage Spring" on dvd for christmas and according to (his highness) HFW, if a group of people get together and approach their local council asking for land on which to grow food the council are obliged to provide it! I'm not sure exactly how big a group it needs to be but if you could get some like-minded friends together that might be a way of "jumping the queue". Apparently it could end up being any old piece of waste ground that needs loads of work to get it up to standard but it is land nonetheless. It seemed unlikely to me but HFW stated it as fact so you can blame him if it's not true!

Yes it's true but then again he has never had dealings with my council.

[Nomada]

Yes it's true but then again he has never had dealings with my council.

Or mine, to answer a question someone asked me on a thread by Mr. Moon (can't remember which one it was) we've tried all sorts of avenues and we did email our council to enquire about land but we've had no response. So much for their policy of an answer to every question within 24 hours, that was last November. We'll keep trying anyway.

[MikeM]

about 10 mins for our first. The second took a lot longer, about 2 days for that one!!!

[MuddyWitch]

Round here, ~(Leicester) it varies; some sites have vacancies so you start that day, others you wait up to two years

MW

[gigglybug]

I'm still waiting too.

I put my name down for the council one and was 28th on the list, and on the allotment society's one I was 62nd on the list.... I'm not gonna hold my breath for that one.

[Bluemoon]

On a site with 60ish plots we had a choice of 40 and started immediately. A year later, when we decided we'd like a second plot, we had a choice of the remaining 39. This was a few years ago, our site now has a 2 year + waiting list.

[prison break fan]

Sorry you don't live here!! We have a landlord willing to give us extra land if we can find enough tenants!!! pbf

[Jared]

well I was 13th on the list when I joined about 7 months ago, fingers crossed I won't be waiting too much longer.

[Hairyloon]

... if a group of people get together and approach their local council asking for land on which to grow food the council are obliged to provide it! I'm not sure exactly how big a group it needs to be...

Six registered electors or persons liable for council tax.
As laid down in the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908.
Unfortunately, it doesn't place any time constraints on how long the council can take to do it, and I am yet to find out how you go about enforcing it.