Eight-year wait for Bristol allotment plots

People hoping to grow their own fruit and veg on Bristol allotments are facing waiting lists of up to eight years for a plot.

A rush of families wanting to grow their own produce means that in many areas of Bristol demand is still outstripping supply, and there are almost 900 people waiting in line for an allotment.

The demand is put down to an increased interest in organic food and families looking to cut food bills in the recession.

Bristol is the third larger provider of allotments in the country with 4,100 plots spread out on 104 sites, some with hundreds of plots and others just a handful.

Bristol City Council is responsible for all but 19 of the sites, the rest are let by independent allotment associations. The authority has 865 people on its waiting list but that doesn't include those waiting for an allotment at an independent site.

The council says waiting times can be anywhere from one year to five years depending on the location, but people the Bristol Evening Post has spoken to have reported longer.

Among them is 36-year-old Hannah Kent, of Redland, who says she was told by the council's parks department she may have to wait up to eight years if she wants a plot on one of the allotments closest to her.

Ms Kent, an acoustic consultant for engineering consultancy firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, said: "I had a plot at Redland Green five years ago that took me a year to get but then I moved away and had to give it up.

"I would like one within walking distance from home at Redland Green or Metford Road but will have to wait eight years.

"I like being outdoors, producing your own produce without having to go to the supermarket. It's fresher and tastes better."

Bristol City Council has sold some allotment sites in recent years.

In 2007, the authority sold the Jubilee Allotments in Shirehampton for housing, to help raise money for projects like the Museum of Bristol and Hengrove Park.

The council's website lists all of the city's allotment sites and for most of them gives the number of vacant plots and how many people are waiting for them.

There are vacancies at a number of sites but the waiting lists all exceed the number of available plots.

Stoney Lane in Ashley Vale is the largest council-run site in the city, with 166 plots, but there are only nine vacancies and 144 people waiting for them. Malmesbury Road in Redland has no vacancies out of 10 plots but 61 people in the queue.

At Clay Bottom near Fishponds, there are 13 plots in total but 33 people waiting for the two which are vacant. There are plots to be had for those with patience, though, as people move area, lose interest or are removed because of a lack of care.

The council's Bristol parks allotment strategy shows that a quarter of new tenants in 2003 had vacated their plots within two years.

One of the largest sites in Bristol is the independently-run Horfield and District Allotments Association site off Kellaway Avenue.

The association has leased the land from the council until 2030 on a peppercorn rent, and has 400 plots.

Some are subdivided so it has 600 plot holders, and 70 people on the waiting list.

Vice-chairman Pete Clee, 60, retired and of Bishopston, said: "At the moment our waiting time is just over two years, though some on the list now are looking at three or four.

"Once people are on the list they phone me up every month.

"Many people will stay on allotments for a very long time, I've had mine for 25 years.

"People tend to move on, people die and others we have to get rid of because they are not looking after their plots.

"In the last eight or nine years it's just been going up and up. Eight or nine years ago no one was interested now they are ever more popular.

"I think it's mainly because of the move towards going organic, everybody wants to do something green."

City council spokesman Peter Wood said: "Surplus derelict land was indeed disposed of to pay for improvements to the remaining allotment sites. These improvements were badly needed, and the allotment strategy has been held up as a success in this respect, with unlettable overgrown and insecure sites now being fully let.

"Demand for allotments has soared in recent years, and hence sites which until recently had vacant plots now have waiting lists.

"Nonetheless, the creation of new allotment sites is not an easy process. Even if there is open space available, the fencing off of sites, clearance and provision of water and site facilities costs significant money, whilst the principle of creating allotments on open space land is not always a popular move with many residents."

"If land is sold in future, we are looking to come to arrangements with developers to ensure that new allotments are created as a condition of the disposal/development."

South Gloucestershire has 300 plots but no vacancies, and people have been on the waiting list since last August.

One list for plots at an allotment site in Thornbury – he Daggs Allotments, off High Street, – has been closed because so many families want to grow their own.

North Somerset Council does not manage the allotments in its area, they are run by individual town councils.

No one from Bath and North East Somerset Council was available for comment.