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Are you waiting for an allotment
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Jb



Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 10:24 am    Post subject: Are you waiting for an allotment Reply with quote
    

... and if so how long have you been waiting and how long do you expect to wait?

The parish council here have a few allotments and their waiting list is about one to two years. So what's typical?

frewen



Joined: 08 Sep 2005
Posts: 11405

PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 10:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

It took me a year - and when I went on I was number 11 on the list.

Mind you, I took over one half of 6 allotments this old boy had accumulated (which I thought wasn't really in the spirit of the thing).

Now the waiting list is in the 60's !

Northern_Lad



Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 14210
Location: Somewhere
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 10:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Typical appears to be a couple of years wait.
However, if you are on good terms with a current holder (or 10) then you can often 'look after' someone else's plot for 50 or 60 years. Not strictly playing by the rules, but...

toggle



Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 10:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I got mine by knowing the right people. There was a completely abandoned block of plots almost behind a freind's house. Her hubbie works with the bloke that runs the local allotment association and they organised to get the plots active again. I overheard them talking about it and asked for one of the plots. There's still one available, but would involve clearing 10 foot high bramble off the whole thing.

Jb



Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 10:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Six seems rather a lot but given the now common practice of making a standard allotment much smaller than they used to be I can understand someone wanting three or four.

(IIRC a standard allotment used to be 10 rods but now 100-120 m2 seems to be increasingly common)

frewen



Joined: 08 Sep 2005
Posts: 11405

PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 10:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The council have taken the full allotments and cut them in half (hence me having a half plot and being back on the list for another).

He had 6 full ones and 2 poly tunnels

Fee



Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 15922
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 10:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We got ours sooner than we should have by charm and regular contact to see how the list was looking

They've chopped our old plot in half, as they have most around the site. Just before we left ours, the list was up at sixty something for the Camberley area.

Behemoth



Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 10:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The council list is often 2 steps from reality. Butter-up an old codger on the committee.

Fee



Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 15922
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 11:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Behemoth wrote:
Butter-up an old codger on the committee.


Exactly what I did.

bernie-woman



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 11:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

At our AGM last week it was announced that we have about 6 people waiting for a plot but then again we do have about 45 plots (some of those are then slit into halves) for a small place (population of about 4000) but as others have said looking keen and chatting to some of the locals seems to work wonders

lettucewoman



Joined: 26 Sep 2006
Posts: 7834
Location: Tiptoe in the Forest!!
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

4 years and counting....

Blacksmith



Joined: 25 Jan 2005
Posts: 5025
Location: Berkshire
PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 11:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Got mine straight away........ was in very poor condition, couch grass and mares tail everywhere.
Our allotment committee are pretty hot at evicting those who do not keep their plot cultivated.
Didn't have the time to keep mine up so I gave up.

Mrs Fiddlesticks



Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 12:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

there was no waiting list on our site and loads of plots avaliable when we took ours on. There still isn't a list and there are some odd plots free but far fewer than there use to be. We've noticed this change in the 4 years we've had ours

The site is very old; about 100 years old I think. The plots are huge 50pole strips of two different widths, one double the other. Some of these have now been divided down. We've a 30 pole one with a 10 pole one at each end that is let to others.

wizz



Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 561

PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 12:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The half allotment we've just got is part of a new site, that has been set up by local villagers. So no haven't had to wait - and to be honest wouldn't really have considered an allotment if the opportunity hadn't come up. Had thought we would have to make do with the garden.

Whilst one part of the council have been supportive, the planners have been a complete nightmare... (limit to the number of allotments allowed to have sheds, all sheds have to be of same design and shade of brown.. umpteenth specification detail about the temporary road surface, even upset planning rules by having a manure load delivered etc etc.) I think part of the planning issues have been because some villagers objected and were staright onto the couincil as soon as they could find anything that might have contravened the rules... which all seemed a bit OTT. But never mind - after about a year or more's background work the site is open and fast becoming a hive of activity - talking of which - there will be bees as well!

So I guess if there is enough demand/interest, you can identify a potential site, and there is the will to do it... setting up a new site is one way of avoiding waiting lists... (gues that's a lot of "Ifs"!)

Just remebered... a friend of mine has also just got a plot on a new site. It's a small private site in a village that has been set up by a local garden centre/nursery that had some land to spare... Though can't see taht many garden centres have land to spare!

Last edited by wizz on Tue Apr 01, 08 12:24 pm; edited 1 time in total

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 08 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Wasn't a waiting list when I got mine, but I gather that we have one now. Our turnover of allotment holders is quite rapid though.

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