SIR,

My father, at my family home, had a very small house with a very large bucket and a very large garden, whereas I own a large house with three flushing toilets but a very small garden on reclaimed land.

That's the way modern housing is influenced by the high cost of land. After one legacy and a 35 year mortgage I still can't afford a large garden. However, I rent an allotment and have done so for many years.

At 76 I am too old to join a sports club. My on-drive is definitely off, my putt is offputting and the only person I can trip over is myself. Also my wife tells me that I am incompatible with white clothing. Therefore, I club with my fellow allotment holders and chat a lot with like minded people.

Sometimes, my wife and I like to eat out in one of our many splendid local pubs and restaurants but on the way home we are often heard muttering "very nice but they can't match our allotment vegetables."

Although I wear a regulation cloth cap and sometimes ride my bike to the plot, I have a posh liking for asparagus, mangetout peas, calabrese, blueberries and gladioli - all sourced from my allotment. On the other hand, my peasant roots, have left me with a taste for swede, rhubarb, sprouts and pickled onions. The allotment provides these (my wife does the pickling).

Large gardens are an expensive item nowadays and there will always be social and economic reasons why people will turn to the local authorities for a plot.

New housing estates, old terraces, flats and retirement homes, brownfield sites, all produce people in search of somewhere to garden.

We are fortunate in Monmouth in that our site is not in demand for any other purpose. The only threats to its success are from neglect and complete isolation if the entrance road is allowed to deteriorate further.

On my return from one visit with my mud spattered car, a neighbour asked if I had been on some motorsport cross country event!

TV programmes, newspaper articles and books about allotment cultivation have proliferated in the past few years. This has created a demand unknown since the Dig for Victory campaign of the last war and has resulted in waiting lists.

Now is the time for councils to put their provision of allotments in order with all this enthusiasm at their disposal.

I hope I have given some idea of how I and my allotment are well matched, why I need it, and the pleasure and produce it brings me.

I also hope that my situation reflects in some part that of my fellow allotment holders and that of the applicants on the waiting list.

I hope to write further on the subject.

Trevor Hooper

(Monmouth)