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Scotland: East Lothian residents facing 16-year wait for an allotment

Allotments near West Barns.

People in Scotland’s Garden County face a wait of nearly 16 years to get their hands on an allotment – the second longest wait in the UK.

By Marie Sharp
East Lothian Courier
Oct 21, 2021

Excerpt:

Councillor Norman Hampshire, East Lothian Council’s environment spokesperson, said that the local authority was working with housebuilders to have allotments included in new developments.

He said: “While East Lothian is an area with many households who have their own garden, we recognise changing trends in the way we live have led to an increase in demand for allotments and this is something that will be reviewed as part of the preparation of the next Local Development Plan.”

The latest survey, carried out by MyJobQuote, pulled together information from all 302 local councils in the UK through Freedom of Information requests.

It found that, while the national average wait for an allotment was two years and eight months, in East Lothian it was 15.7 years.

Edinburgh’s average wait was about eight years.

More than 100,000 people in the UK are currently waiting for an allotment and the number of Google searches for allotments in the UK is now 4.5 times higher than before the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the complete article here.