A four-year waiting list for Wimbledon allotment space has spurred desperate gardeners to create their own group to try and counter the problem.
By Maxim McDonald
A four-year waiting list for Wimbledon allotment space has spurred desperate gardeners to create their own group to try and counter the problem.
Wimbledon Grow Your Own Food group hopes to bring like minds together to pool ideas, create a community and build a strong relationship with the council.
According to the Merton Council’s May 2010 statistics, 803 people are waiting for allotment space, with half of those lists now closed as the council desperately tries to find more space.
Wimbledon Grow Your Own Food spokesman Harry Vaneris said: “I think we came down to the idea that we wanted to start something practical, be able to create a space for people to grow their own food or grow it with other people and learn off each other.”
Merton Council Environment and Leisure Services councillor David Simpson said they have issued 188 notices in the last nine months to people with badly maintained sites in a bid to create more space.
“People have clearly expressed an interest in growing their own food,” Mr Vaneris said.
“What do I suggest? People should say ‘get on with it’, with due care and diligence, find the space and get it done.”
Once the group find the space they need, their ideas include a rotation of experienced gardeners who will organise a planting roughly every weekend teaching the others whatever they want to grow.
For information on the group, email [email protected] or call 020 8946 3750.
For more information on Merton allotments go to http://www.merton.gov.uk/allotments
