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A plot of your own... if you can wait 40 years
ALLOTMENTS are traditionally considered the haunt of older people – and, with a 40-year wait for a plot in Camden, this could be seen as a blessing.
Figures seen by the New Journal this week show there are hundreds of would-be vegetable growers who can’t get their hands dirty because Camden does not have enough allotments to meet demand.
Sites in Highgate, by railway lines in South End Green and in Hampstead are heavily oversubscribed. Waiting lists are expected to get longer, with hundreds of people putting their names down each year.
About 250 people added their names to the waiting list in 2008 and already numbers have been boosted this year by a further 100. Currently, Camden has a list of 978 people who want allotments.
Town Hall allotment officer Hilary Burden said: “I have been doing this job for six years and it used to be about 20 extra names on the waiting list annually. Demand has grown very quickly.”
Fitzroy Park allotment treasurer Tim Sanders says more and more people are leaning over the fences at the Highgate site and asking how they can get a plot.
He had to wait four years for his allotment. “There is a greater mix of people now interested in growing food,” he said. “It used to be a bit like one man and his shed but it has become very democratised in recent years. Everyone wants an allotment.”
He has urged the Town Hall to find more land for allotments. “There is a lot of cultivable land out there that is not being used,” he said. “There should be a borough- wide survey done to make new patches available.” |
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