Ten year waiting time!

[Yuccaman]

I don't know if my understanding of it is right, but I thought that the '6 people...' rule solely meant that the council has to provide land for allotments. If there are allotments already in existence and they are full, have they not already fulfilled any obligation that they have under that law?

[BarleySugar]

We have been trying to get allotments in our village for 2 years, which has been heavily developed with high density housing. At the meeting we have with the council this morning we finally felt we were beginning to get somewhere.
They are contacting the landowner who has tentatively offered land to be leased, and getting the planner to look to see if it is suitable. If it is they are willing to open up the access road, organise a lease to the council (hopefully 25 years), and our allotment society will then lease back from the council at a peppercorn rent, which means we can set a realistic rent for our plots. (We felt this was a major concession of the part of the council, and makes the scheme much more 'future proofed'.)
IF this lead is not going anywhere, they had 2 other leads to follow up. They will also draw up some plans of different scenarios, we have 40 on the waiting list for allotments that to not even exist, I think the number could rise considerably if it become more of a concrete proposal. WE are proposing 5 rod plots instead of 10, with a maximum of 2 per person if waiting lists allow. As I put forward, it could make sense to make the site as large as viable, as incorporating extensions to fencing and water may be an issue later. We also would like the space for community involvement at a later date, so don't want the site too squashed.
The main stipulations so far from the landowner has been organic growing, and no harm to the bunnies or foxes. In our dicussion about fences, I felt it more important to go down rather than up as I think or 4 footed friends will more of a nuisance.
As far as set up costs, there is no money in the kitty, but he seems to think he will be able to put us in touch with grants and funding that will help us get set up.
One of our commitee asked abut the 6 people law, but as he said, who polices it? there a number of high priority projects that the council are already legally bound to comply with.
Importantly a meeing has been fixed for a months time, so they are obviously intending to have more new information by then. At least we finally felt they are beginning to appreciate the need to allotments in our area, but I think I'll have a bit more time to save up before I need to worry about paying for my shed