MY childhood involved lots of time working on my dad’s market garden.

That is probably why I do not have the faintest interest in putting my name down for one of 960 allotments on 37 sites across Bolton. Lots of other people think differently.

At the last count there were more than 200 people on the waiting list and Bolton Council has had one of those “wide-ranging reviews”.

Plans now include prioritising allocation for those without gardens at home, offering reduced sized plots for new tenants for the first year and getting prospective tenants to “buddy up” with existing plot holders before they take on one of their own.

This approach seems very sensible to me at a time when “growing your own” is back in fashion and increasingly necessary.

Demand is growing, you might say, and if things go on like this the council might have to consider finding other patches of land.

One such might be the spot where the now-demolished Longsight Junior School used to be in Hough Fold Way, Harwood.

Residents are led to believe there is no chance of another school appearing on the site and the suspicion is the council is hoping a builder will come along eventually with a plan to build houses.

Some of the people round about might relish the opportunity to do a spot of digging and planting instead.

Not me, though.