Growing interest in allotments
Allotment gardening is growing more popular.
Geoff Stokes, from the National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardeners, said the problem of waiting lists for plots was becoming a trend across the UK.
He added: “The demand for allotments is increasing and interest is currently blossoming at the moment right across the country.
It has 60 people on a waiting list for a plot in the area. The national average is 59, but Berkshire people will have to wait up to ten years because plots are given up so rarely.
The Government says it “recognises the unique role of allotments as places which bring all sections of the community together. They provide opportunities for people to grow their own produce as part of the long term promotion of sustainability and healthy living.”
Improvements attract tenents
In Leicester, the number of people in renting allotments increased 14%.
More than 200 people started keeping an allotment in 2002 and almost half of them were women, according to Leicester City Council. Over 1,500 people in Leicester rented an allotment.
That was the second year of a five year improvement programme for the city’s 45 allotment sites, spending around £100,000. The money has been used to build new fences, sheds and in some cases, to lower rents. The result was more than 200 new tenants over nine months.
More land needed
Last year a campaign developed to increase the number of allotments available in the Wirral.
All councils in England & Wales (with the exception of Inner London) have to provide allotments, by law. Any group of adults over the age of 18 and registered on the electoral role can group together to request the council provide.
Councils also have the power to convert land to allotment use, and protect it from development.
Efficient and preferable
Allotments are more efficient than farming in terms of land usage, though they are more labour intensive. But that is part of the reason people want them.
As well as healthy exercise and the social benefits, concerns about GM food, chemical pollution on food and the desire for same-day freshness drive increasing numbers of people to allotments.
Following the peak of 1,400,000 plots country-wide after the last war, there was a sharp decline to around 500,00 in the 1970s. But then the television series The Good Life triggered a huge rise in interest in self-sufficiency and home food production.
Action:
Join a Permaculture Group.
Has your town got sufficient allotments?
If not, get a group together to write a request to the Town Council.
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