Black Country allotment holders have refused to stop working their plots despite repeated vandal attacks.
Yobs struck at the Lee Howl allotments, Robert Road, Tipton, earlier this month, smashing sheds and setting them alight. Vandals forced their way through a fence and prised shed doors open with spades.
They also threw tools across paths and into compost bins, before setting fire to three of the newest sheds.
Secretary Sid Parker said the site had been attacked six times in the last 12 years.
He said: “It’s just perverse – causing wanton damage. It looks like a bomb site and vandalism is happening now almost on a daily basis.”
But growers at the 72-plot site refuse to be forced out by the hooligans.
“We wonder if it is really worth it but then we start growing again and decide that it is,” said Mr Parker. “We’re a multicultural community that encapsulates the best of things.”
Mr Parker added they planned to get local youngsters involved in their own plot to encourage appreciation of the allotments.
Sandwell Council allotments officer Barbara Carroll said there seemed to be a particular vandalism problem at the Lee Howl allotments
But she said the council was working with plotholders to resolve the situation.
“We’re continually in consultation with them. We’re asking them if they’ll go for funding to put another fence round. We have already replaced the gates.”
The latest attack happened on March 5 and saw yobs setting fire to three of the newest sheds. They also emptied tools, books and wellies out of the sheds and threw them across paths and into compost bins.
The vandals forced their way on to the allotments and used spades to lever open the shed doors.
Vandals hit the site around 30 times during a six-week wrecking spree last summer, forcing growers to hold talks with police.
It was hoped increased police patrols had brought an end to the problems.
Fire crews who attended the latest incident said it was thought the fire had be started by youths seen hanging about the site.
4 Comments
Mmmmmmm, this would be because “theers nuffin ‘t’ do, an weem bored or unemployed. You think todays youth are bad, wait until the next lot get out of nappies.
What do you expect when you have part-time policing?
Web-cam?
One can drop little and be fined £75..but wreck someone’s hard work and well, you see the stance taken. Maybe you”ll be lucky and receive ‘extra patrols’. As if the police actually ever served this area on anything other than a skeleton crew basis..