Want An Allotment? Come Back In 40 Years ...

[Knight of Albion]

Spotted this in the Mail. A wait of up to 40 years to get an allotment in Camden ...

Gardeners in Camden face 40-year waiting list for an allotment | Daily Mail Online

[Bill HH]

People will be putting their new born babies down for a plot, like some do for a public school.

[Amandaod]

Wow!! very thankful I didn't even need to wait a day! Shame for those really wanting one though.

[TrialAndError]

Trust the Daily Mail to get the news to their readers over six years too late!

A Guardian article (and they were not alone) reported this in June 2009. I quote from it:

"We can confirm that Camden has a waiting list of about 40 years for a council allotment. This is because we have got 195 allotment plots in Camden but more than 800 people waiting..".

For those who want to read the article and can afford to wait the inordinately long time it takes to download because of all the ads (the Daily mail is even worse in this respect) it can be found here:

Allotment demand leads to 40-year waiting lists | Money | The Guardian

[rosiepumpkin]

The wait in Haringey is meant to be ages and we got one in 2 years. Allegedly the person taking over the list did it upside down by mistake.

Camden stretches from central London right up to 5 minutes from me in N6, so anyone in Camden is within easy reach of applying for a plot in a next door borough. I suspect the wait isn;t that long, it's that huge numbers of people are on multiple lists.