Vandals have wreaked a ‘trail of mess and destruction’ at Oldham’s new ‘urban farm’ to the dismay of volunteers and chiefs.
The team at Northern Roots, which aims to be the UK’s largest farm and eco park, said on Monday that part of the site at Snipe Clough had been ‘seriously vandalised’. Damage included young plants and inactive beehives being ‘destroyed’, holes cut through the new polytunnel and other breakages.
The team said their work was being funded by charitable grants and donations, which would now have to be redirected – along with volunteers’ time – into repairing the damage.
It comes after The Hub at Alexandra Park was also vandalised this month. Oldham council said staff found a fence had been broken and pulled out, crop protection dragged off the beds and plants ripped out and strewn across the site.
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With help from residents and pupils from The Blue Coat School, repairs were carried out but the authority said it meant that time which should have been used to prepare a harvest for delivery to Oldham Foodbank had been lost. That incident has been reported to the police.
Councillor Abdul Jabbar, who has been the cabinet member whose portfolio includes the Northern Roots project, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he was ‘disappointed’ that the urban farm had been vandalised – with parts of the new polytunnel ‘slashed’.
“Of course it is heartbreaking, especially when this is a large scale polytunnel that we have installed but we will continue with the work that we are doing,” he said.
“People who have assisted with the project and the wider community, they are equally disturbed by what’s happened. People who have assisted Northern Roots, they are upset about the damage and we have received many messages of support.
“We haven’t got any idea why or who has done it but we are not going to be derailed from our focus to develop the wider benefit for our residents and our town.”
He could not confirm the cost of repairing the damage as this is still being assessed but added it appears ‘small scale’ and would not deter them from continuing work on the project.
“We will continue to develop the economic and social benefits to Oldham through this project,” Coun Jabbar added.
“Since this has happened we have received many offers of support, online and in person, and we are extremely grateful for that, and people are coming to clear up the mess.
“This is going to be a wonderful project for Oldham. This damage is of course unwanted and will slightly create a disturbance to what we are doing but we are resilient in dealing with this and moving it forward.”
The Northern Roots project, which is being supported by a portion of the recent £20m successful Levelling Up bid, will develop across 160 acres south of Alexandra Park down to Daisy Nook country park.
Plans for the top half of the site were approved in October last year, which will include a visitor centre, with spaces for events and meetings and a café and shop, a natural amphitheatre and performance space as well as a learning centre, forestry depot and solar panels.
The plans include outline proposals for a natural swimming pond and a community growing allotment. Produce from the proposed market garden would be sold in the shop and the café in the visitor centre.
In a statement, the Northern Roots team said: “Northern Roots would like to thank everyone for their support, kind words and offers of help in relation to the vandalism at the Northern Roots Urban Farm.
“The Urban Farm team have done a brilliant job of clearing up the mess, salvaging what they can and restoring order.
“The Northern Roots charity is creating the UK’s largest urban farm and eco-park on 160 acres of greenspace, ten minutes on foot from Oldham town centre – a destination for learning, leisure, growing, and nature designed to benefit the environment, and improve the health, wellbeing and livelihoods of the people of Oldham and beyond.
“The charity recognizes that there will be challenges to delivering this kind of project, such as the vandalism that took place over the weekend. It is committed to working in partnership with local communities, young people, organisations and businesses to realize the vision and deliver benefits to those communities.”
They said that in the past year the charity has planted 1,600 hedgerow trees, created five ponds, improved ten acres of woodland and grassland habitat and removed over a thousand bags of litter from the site.
Coun Jabbar also said he was confident that the ambitious project would be a success story for Oldham.
“When people see the beautiful buildings that have been designed and how people are using it it will be fine and I think we’ll find that people will fully engage,” he added. “I have no concerns about the long term success of this project at all.”
The vandalism to the urban farm has also been reported to Greater Manchester Police, he confirmed.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the project at info@northern-roots.uk.
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