To reach the front of the allotment waiting list you must, by current estimates, wait longer than most tenancies last. The queue has become a kind of inheritance, passed down and speculated upon, a scarce thing traded in whispers.
How a garden became a market
The plots cost almost nothing to rent, which is the root of the problem. Because the price never rises, the only currency left is patience, and patience compounds.
- Some names have sat on the list for over a decade.
- A few plots are quietly sublet in defiance of the rules.
- At least one holder, we found, has not turned a spade in years but will not give up the tenancy.
The committee that oversees the site is made up of volunteers who inherited the mess and have no appetite to be the ones who start charging neighbors more.
There are fixes: shorter tenancies, use-it-or-lose-it inspections, a modest fee that reflects real demand. Each is reasonable and each would make somebody furious. So the list grows, a monument to how hard it is to reform something that everybody agrees is broken and nobody wants to be blamed for changing.
Related: more Field Notes · the region's disappearing phone boxes
Further reading: What an allotment is
