A Reminder for those on a waiting list

[jackie j]

Can I remind people that if you are on an allotment waiting list have you
A Moved
B Changed phone number.

If so remember to let the Allotment Secretary know, I have spent lots of time trying to get hold of people who have not informed us of changes and therefore we cant get hold of them to tell them they are at the top of the list, they get crossed off.

[binley100]

We also tell people it'd be useful to show there face from time to time to show that they are still interested .....amazing how many people put their name down then disappear off the face of the earth....

[alldigging]

Absolutely! I borrowed another allotment's waiting list last year and spent some time going through it. So many disconnected numbers and people who didn't want a plot anymore.

And don't give a mobile phone number either! I get free local calls but mobile ones cost me a fortune!

[Alison]

And don't give a mobile phone number either! I get free local calls but mobile ones cost me a fortune!

Interesting, I'd be more likely to give a mobile number on the basis that it's easier to get hold of me on that and am pretty sure I did when I was looking for a plot. All through the council round here though not allotment secretaries and e-mail seemed to be used quite a lot too.

[alldigging]

Interesting, I'd be more likely to give a mobile number on the basis that it's easier to get hold of me on that and am pretty sure I did when I was looking for a plot. All through the council round here though not allotment secretaries and e-mail seemed to be used quite a lot too.

Yes tbh I'd prefer email - but only if someone spells it out for me what they've scribbled on a bit of paper.

[Sarico]

We also tell people it'd be useful to show there face from time to time to show that they are still interested .....amazing how many people put their name down then disappear off the face of the earth....

that is right but... i put my name down a list and i went there once and the guy at the allotment told me that now is full so it's not point go there and ask for info and i told me that if some are available he will contact me.... i start to think that if i go again it may cancel me from the list o let me wait 20 years... i think i will be back there next year or just bring my dog for a walk and if i spot him again just say " hello.. how are you? your plot look nice.. wel done... maybe with a compliment it will be more gentle with my application lol

[alldigging]

A few things I can suggest:

Don't take your dog with you.
Our authority doesn't officially allow dogs on plots. Some plot holders really don't like dogs.

And get your name on your nearest two or three sites, as long as they're within sensible travelling distance.

You could volunteer to help out anyone struggling with their plot - anyone who offered to dig at our site would be roped in for weeks to come.
Ask if you could put a notice up at the site offering your services as free labour.

If there's a spare bit of land in your area and you can find another 5 people interested in allotments you can bug local councillors to get a new site in your area. There've been a couple of new sites in my ward in the last year or so.

Consider landshare - ask neighbours if you can grow veggies in their garden - they get some of the veg as a kind of payment and you get an 'allotment'.

[Sarico]

The allotment site is very close intact sometime I can smell horse manure from my house. I will say 200m away. The site is closed and a lot of people pass over there with dog for a walk but not inside the site. There is a gate. That allotment site have 2 chairman and one of them is my dad in law best friend and he's been in hospital for 6 months and was upset that I could look after his allotment. I offer to him if he would let me look after his allotment. But I didn't revive any answer and any news about the list. Then he's been back again in hospital and I didnt want annoying him so I went to see the other guy that he's the one I talk about before.
Plus about my neighbour both have a mess in their garden and I never Speek to them ( specially after they have party till 3am and I ask to put the music down and they didn't)

[Snadger]

Just ben deleting some of my six year old emails. I can't believe how persistant I was at the time. The allotment officer must have been sick of me!

[chris]

I emailed the site I'm on every month, literally - first of the month, 9am - emails sent off. When I finally did get a plot I apologised but the sec said that she'd prefer it that way, it shows who is keen and who we'd prefer on our site.

[jackie j]

We do have an e - mail address and at every meeting ( monthly ) we are given an updated list but we don't get given e - mail addresses maybe I will bring it up at the next meeting. Each site has a warden and its up to us to contact new members to arrange meeting and give plot to.

[snohare]

When I got an allotment plot, two things helped me; one was that when talking to the person with the list I established my credentials as a person who had experience of growing already (I was growing veggies in several places at once, back then!) and I kept in contact, phoned up every three months or so, showing that I was really keen, it wasn't just a passing phase. I suppose I also ticked boxes as a person with health problems for whom the council would be providing therapeutic social/emotional/economic help.
In your shoes, I would certainly ask and see if there is anyone who wants help, and would be willing to show you how to do things. Once your face is known, and if you are seen as keen and likely to maintain your plot properly, then I'd expect you are more likely to rise up the list. It shouldn't work that way really, but that's just human nature.
Best of luck, Sarico !

[Esplanade]

Relating to lots of this... but

Hi (we're new to the forum)

We've just been reading all of this. We have a real problem getting an allotment; we've been on the list for nearly 3 years and cannot get a plot for love nor money.

The problem isn't that the site is full. There are 50 plots and half of them are weeds and untended.. its really terrible.

When we started on the list we were approx #22. Last year we started making a real fuss and emailed them or called nearly every 2 weeks.

This is difficult to believe but now we are number 47 in the list! Yep.

We're trying really hard to not make a really big fuss but it's midsummer again and another year will be lost soon. We know that we should involve the local MP (he's a neighbour) but we think that this will really antagonise the council and there may still be a chance of getting a decent plot by being nice. If we bring in the MP we will only get offered the very worst plot on the site.

Oh what to do? We've started a blog and are now putting up photos of the site, etc to show how bad it really is and if we dont get any response from the council by the end of July - then I think we can be excused for head-hunting (and naming and shaming them)

it's such a terrible waste..

what does everyone think?

[Andromeda]

Have spoken to your local Councillor about it? That might be a better route (at first) than bringing in your MP.

[snohare]

You've gone from 22 to 47, with no offer of a plot ?

Well, I'd say that either you have put some noses out of joint, or you have some very incompetent people in charge there. Probably both, as the latter always have a tendency to blame others when their shortcomings come to light !
Well, it's not like you have anything to lose, is it ? It's not as if you are slowly but surely inching your way up the ladder to your goal - quite the opposite ! It may well be the situation is that someone has their eye on the ground for development and the cunning plan is to show how badly tended the plots are, how little demand there is, etc; or it may simply be total, muddle-headed, "Is that the most recent list?" IT incompetence. But either way, I think you are doing a good impression of a very optimistic boiling frog if you think that being co-operative is going to get you anywhere.
In your shoes, I'd have the big guns on the go. Local councillors, MPs, NSALG (definitely worth trying), newspapers, any local and national pressure groups that are applicable, anyone you can think of. After all, as they say in the human rights arena, "Silence only brings the right to be abused."