Plotting: The Demographics

Plotting: The Demographics

This report outlines the current demographic composition of plotholders at Dartford Road Allotments (as of January 1, 1999) in terms of sex and age (the latter as estimated by the author), and how the composition of the plotholding community has changed since June 1, 1991, the date on which the Association was formed. The first lease for the site came into force on April 1, 1992, but by then significant efforts had already been made to bring new plotholders onto the site, so June 1, 1991 is a more meaningful starting date. Unless otherwise stated, the data used are for individual plotholders, defined as the person named in the tenancy agreement (data are also presented below on who actually does the work!). Information is also provided on new tenants since June 1, 1991 who have subsequently left the site, in order to determine which age group (if any) is most likely to stay on site once recruited.

Over this period, the site has undergone extensive renovation and experienced a marked increase in use. In June 1991 only 76% of the tenantable land on the site (approximately 1,000 rods) was legally tenanted, but by April 1992 this had risen to 88%, and to 100% in January 1993. Over the subsequent six years the tenancy rate has consistently remained above 96%. The consequences for recruitment are obvious: prior to 1993 new applicants could be accommodated on the inherited supply of derelict land, but since then recruitment has depended on existing tenants vacating their plots, for which reason the number of tenancies granted to new tenants has dropped markedly over the past three or four years relative to the peak achieved in 1992, and having achieved a relatively stable composition, the plotholder population has naturally aged. This is important for understanding the data presented below, which (unless otherwise indicated) refer to the estimated current age of present and past plotholders, not the age at which plots were first taken.

The Association has responded to the shortage of land to rent in two ways: first, by concluding "overspill" agreement with other sites in West Dartford, to which applicants have been diverted, and second, by taking a proactive approach in managing the existing tenancies, by encouraging plotholders who appear to be experiencing difficulties in managing their plots either to give up part of the land (to accommodate a new tenant) or to surrender the tenancy, in return for a place on the Association's "Priority Reapplication List", which guarantees a place at the top of any waiting list should the plotholder wish to return to the site at a later date. Plotholders on this List are deemed to be in continuing good standing with the Association. At the other extreme, tenants who allow their plots to remain uncultivated and who do not opt to remedy the situation within thirty days or to adjust their tenancy arrangements receive notices to quit. While a total of 101 tenancies have been surrendered since June 1991 (and not subsequently resumed), only 9 of these tenancies have been terminated by notices to quit, a figure which compares favourably with the 75 names still on the Priority Reapplication List. An additional 9 people have been removed from the Priority Reapplication List - because they have returned to new tenancies on the Dartford Road site.

At present (January 1, 1999) there are 117 plotholders on the Dartford Road site, of whom 43 (or 37%) were already plotholders in June 1991 (to be referred to henceforth as pre-DRAA tenants), and 74 (63%) have arrived since (the post-DRAA tenants). 26 (22%) of current plotholders are women, a ratio little changed since June 1991, when of 66 plotholders actually working plots, 16 (24%) were women. According to "The Future for Allotments" Report (p. xvi), in 1993 around 16% of plotholders in England were women, so Dartford Road is somewhat unrepresentative in this respect. The Report also suggests that 16% "represents an underestimate of the number of women allotment gardeners, since many plots which are registered in the name of a man are actually being tended by both the man and his wife or partner". This also holds true for Dartford Road: 17 tenants (15%) are men who work their plots together with a women, or who in two cases are not involved at all in cultivation. Taking into account the 7 women who are legal tenants but who leave all work on the allotments to their husbands, we find that a total of 36 tenancies (31% of the total) involve the active participation of women in cultivation.

Table 1 shows the estimated age distribution of plotholders in June 1991 and January 1999. The estimated mean age of current plotholders (the weighted average, obtained by multiplying the number of plotholders in each category by the mid-point age within that category, with 75 taken as the mid-point age for those in their 70s and above) is 56.5 years, a modest reduction from the estimated mean age of 58.2 for plotholders in June 1991. The former figure includes the 43 pre-DRAA tenants, who today have an estimated mean age of 64.1 years; the estimated mean age of the 74 post-DRAA tenants is 52.2. This is a full six years lower than the mean age of plotholders when the Association was formed, and this gap makes no allowance for the fact that fewer new tenancies have been created in recent years, so the mean age of post-DRAA tenants is likely to have been even lower earlier in the present decade.

While 74 post-DRAA tenants have been retained, another 75 have been terminated since June 1991. There are few obvious differences between those plotholders who have remained on the site and those who have left: 23% of the leavers were women, compared with 22% of the stayers, and the estimated (current) mean ages of the two groups are similar: 52.2 versus 52.1 years. The age distributions of the two groups (Table 2) do reveal one important difference, however: the very low retention rate (36%) amongst post-DRAA tenants currently estimated to be in their 40s (or late 30s - early 40s at the time they took their plots on), particularly in comparison with plotholders now in their 50s. There systematic evidence has been collected as to why people have relinquished plots: the evidence however supports the author's subjective impression, which is that there is a strong link between plotholding and the family life cycle. People in their 20s and early 30s are attracted to allotment gardening, and often include their (small) children in the business of cultivation. By the time the children have left primary school, however, alternative claims on the parents' time (from work, from other leisure pursuits preferred by the children, and from the endless demands of DIY) make it very difficult to keep a plot in cultivation, despite a continuing interest in doing so. At this point active demand for allotments turns latent - until the children reach working age, and the parents have time to pursue their own interests again. By implication then, one of the practical functions of the "Priority Reapplication List" is to facilitate resumption of allotment gardening by former tenants once they reach their late 40s and early 50s, at which time they are likely to remain tenants through to the age of retirement and beyond.

Of course, not everyone who has left the site is likely to return. Of the 75 post-DRAA leavers, 16 have moved away from Dartford, 12 were obliged to give up through illness and 7 were given notice to quit. The remaining 40 post-DRAA leavers do represent a pool, however, from which a proportion of future plotholders are likely to be drawn.

Two other attributes of current plotholders are worth noting. First, as would be expected, the great majority live in quite close proximity to the site. 36 (or 31% of all plotholders) live in the streets physically adjacent to the site (Devonshire Avenue, Bath, Somerset, Gloucester and Havelock Roads, and part of Dartford Road), and another 64 (55%) live elsewhere in West Dartford (defined as west of the River Darenth). A significant minority, however, do travel from areas which are served by more proximate sites which do have vacancies: 9 from East Dartford and Gravesham, 3 from South Dartford (Wilmington) or Sevenoaks (Hextable), and 5 from the London Borough of Bexley, together representing some 15% of the total. Within this catchment area, the population is overwhelmingly white and of British origin, as are 89% of current plotholders. Nevertheless, there are plotholders at Dartford Road of both other European (mainly Irish and Italian) and broader (Indian and Caribbean) extraction, and while few in number, this group does include some of the longest continuous tenancies on the site. While no statistics are available on the relative proportion of these minority groups within the population of the catchment area, it seems unlikely that it exceeds 11%, and is likely to be considerably less than this.

Tenancies are managed on the Dartford Road site on the basis that all applicants have equal rights to enjoy a plot, subject only to the provision in the Lease that priority must be given on any waiting list first to applicants who live in close proximity to the site, and second to residents of Dartford. Within the categories, the Association gives priority to persons whose names appear on the Priority Reapplication List.