DEMAND for allotments is rocketing, as a district-wide marketing campaign bears fruit.

There has been a 74 per cent surge in the number of would-be growers coming forward wanting to have a go at the 'good life' over the past year, according to new Bradford Council figures.

Councillor Andrew Thornton, executive member for the environment, said demand had been growing for some time.

He said: "It's something which has been increasing for a while. We had a whole period when nobody wanted them but I think people have come round to the idea that it is good exercise and that growing your own food on an allotment is worthwhile.

"That's not the only reason I think that demand has increased. We have also been promoting them more."

Cllr Thornton said allotments were being promoted on the Council's website and through neighbourhood forums.

A total of 235 people are now on waiting lists, and work to free up plots from people who are not looking after them is continuing, with 96 tenancies terminated over the past year.

Cllr Thornton said: "We want people who have allotments to actually make use of them so if they're not cultivating them properly then we want them to make way for someone who has a desire to keep on with an allotment."

He said if people had a good reason for not looking after their plot, such as illness, that would be taken into account.

But he added: "We can't have allotments sitting around idle for months on end when other people are on the waiting list."

Eileen Armstrong, 67, of Barkerend, has been a keen allotment-holder for more than 15 years, with a plot at Stanacre allotments in Northallerton Road.

She said: "My grand idea, my children being much younger then, was that we would go up there digging and producing food and we would all have barbecues on a Sunday and it was going to be wonderful.

"I ended up on my tod, but now it's my little release. If I get really frustrated about anything I can dig a hole or weed."

Mrs Armstrong said a good 50 per cent of the allotments on that site were unused, and said she would like more to be done to bring them back into use.

But she said she had noticed more people taking an interest in the idea of having an allotment.

She said: "We do get a lot of young professional people coming along, but it needs an awful lot of commitment. If they are working and have got a young family, some will give up after a season. It's more suited to retired folk."