By Cara Sulieman
RESIDENTS desperate to recreate the Good Life are having to wait almost a decade to get their hands on an allotment.
But now one Scots council are hoping to cut their waiting lists by creating up to 1,000 new plots.
The City of Edinburgh Council already have 1,233 plots over 21 sites across the city but demand has risen so dramatically that there are now six times as many people on the waiting list than ten years ago.
In a bid to help residents realise their dream of growing their own vegetables, the council wants to create up to 1,000 new allotments across the city.
They have launched a new strategy – Cultivating Communities: A Growing Challenge – to help them pinpoint sites across Edinburgh for the new allotments.
It comes as the waiting list in the city hits 2,367 with a boom in tenement residents desperate to own their own piece of land.
In 1998 there were just 412 people signed up to claim an allotment.
Council chiefs are putting it down to an increase in the popularity of environmental issues as well as TV programmes encouraging gardening.
An allotment can provide a family of four with enough fruit and vegetables for one years.
The City of Edinburgh Council say that they have been leading the rest of the country’s local authorities in developing and maintaining allotments.
Councillor Robert Aldridge, Environmental Convenor for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “In launching this new allotment strategy for the city, we are building on the success of our original allotment strategy and recognising our responsibility to support the increased number of people on the allotment plot waiting list.
“Allotments are excellent for contributing to a year-round healthy lifestyle and help to promote sustainability and well-being.
“People enjoy growing their own vegetables and flowers and this strategy will hopefully see the number and quality of allotments increase in the coming years.”
