Gardeners get dug in for a 40-year wait

Demand for allotments is at an all-time high with some waiting lists decades long, research suggested today.

Camden and Islington are particularly over subscribed, with waiting lists of 40 and 25 years.

More than 80,000 people are hoping for a plot with a typical delay of three years, a poll of councils by home insurance firm LV found.

Researchers PCP got information from 301 councils on their allotment provision. Geoff Stokes, secretary of the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners, said: "It's encouraging that so many people are interested.

"Allotment gardening has so many benefits: it's cheap, it's good for you and it can save you hundreds of pounds a year on food."

The research showed that 56 per cent of allotment users take up a plot to save money and just over a third do so to because of concerns about the pesticides on their food.