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09
Mar 2021
Huge increase in Harrogate district allotment applications
Applications for allotments in the Harrogate district have gone up massively since 2018.
The increase is being attributed to lockdown tempting people with the promise of clear air and fresh vegetables grown from a patch of ground they can call their own.
Harrogate Borough Council owns and manages allotments at Claro Road and Pearl Street in Harrogate and Ferrensby in Knaresborough. The remaining 23 allotments in the district are run by parish councils or managed privately.
In 2018, Harrogate Borough Council received 12 requests for allotments at its Claro Road site, which is one of the biggest allotments in the district with 56 plots.
In 2020 there were 103 applications, an increase of over 750%.
The other two council-run sites saw a similar surge of interest. Pearl Street went from two applications in 2018 to 27 in 2020. Ferrensby saw an increase of six to 37 over the same period.
The council warns on its website that applicants could wait for up to five years, depending on which site they apply for.
Caroline Linford, who runs the website Sustainably Harrogate, has been on the waiting list for an allotment in Harrogate for two years. She would like her own plot so she can re-use food waste from her family's dinner table.
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The six allotments in Ripon are owned by Ripon City Council and leased to the Ripon Allotments Society.
Malcolm Hutchinson from the Ripon Allotments Society said there are now 76 people on the waiting list for a plot in Ripon, a significant increase over previous years.
He's had an allotment since the 1970s and says they have become popular for people with more time on their hands due to lockdown.
He said:
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