Garden UK owned data · 2026 snapshot
How we built the UK allotment finder.
Garden UK assessed 15,058 mapped allotment candidates and retained 2,968 locations after a high-confidence check on 24 September 2026. The verified set covers 336 local-authority areas, 12 UK regions and 108 browsing areas. Each public record confirms a location, not plot availability. A further 12,090 candidates remain held because no suitable live match was found or the evidence needs review.
Verification funnel
Most mapped candidates are not published.
A location enters the finder only when the evidence clears our high-confidence rule.
Mapped candidates assessed
Records from national mapping layers formed the starting list.
Locations verified
An operational place record or a suitable live website supported each location.
Records held back
Unresolved and medium-confidence matches remain outside the public finder.
Why records were held: 11,516 had no suitable live match. 508 were probable matches needing review. Another 66 had a live website without a strong enough name match.
Regional coverage
Verified locations across 12 UK regions.
These totals describe locations in the finder. They do not count individual plots.
Transparent method
How a mapped site becomes a verified location.
The process favours a smaller, defensible public set over automatic publication.
- 01
Build the mapped baseline
We extracted allotment and community-growing polygons from the April 2026 OS Open Greenspace release.
- 02
Assign places and authorities
OS Open Names, ONS boundaries and OpenStreetMap supplied place, authority and Northern Ireland context.
- 03
Check current evidence
We required a high-confidence operational place match or a live allotment website with a suitable name match.
- 04
Hold uncertain records
Probable, unresolved or conflicting matches stayed out of the public finder for later review.
What "verified" means
The location had enough current evidence to support its name and position on the snapshot date.
What it does not mean
Verification does not confirm vacancies, waiting-list status, fees, eligibility or the current application route.
Reuse the figures carefully
Four limits matter.
- Sites, not plots. One verified location may contain many plots.
- A dated snapshot. Sites, managers and contact routes can change after 24 September 2026.
- Mapped records can overlap. Separate polygons may describe parts of one operating site.
- Coverage is not provision. Regional totals do not measure demand, vacancies or access per resident.
Source releases
The national layers behind the analysis.
Garden UK created the verification and exclusion analysis. The mapped baseline uses the source releases below.
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Additional location data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.