Plot owners at a Leeds allotment site are living in “constant fear” of vandalism and their vegetables and gardening equipment being stolen after a “multitude" of break-ins.
Clarkesfield Allotments, just off Dewsbury Road in Beeston, is constantly under threat of thieves, say the worried and frustrated allotment holders. They can no longer store their equipment on site and every morning they’re worried they’ll discover a new horror.
Grandfather-of-eight Mal Simpson, 56, has owned a 60m plot there for five years. He takes great pride in the site but has grown increasingly “angry” about the vandalism and theft, as it makes it so much more difficult to manage the site.
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Mal, who’s a Clarkesfield Allotments Committee member, said: “Vegetables have been stolen, that has happened. When you take your time and you see the seed growing and when they’re just about ready to be harvested, you come down and find the potatoes have been dug up and cabbages pulled...
"The only difference between eating a stolen lettuce from an allotment, rather than going to a supermarket and nicking one of theirs, the allotment one will taste a lot better and a lot fresher."
Mal spoke of how vulnerable the site was to would-be trespassers, he said: “We’ve been broken into a multitude of times, it’s really really difficult to defend against it. There’s so many areas they can get in and they can climb the fences, there’s secluded pathways at the back which people don’t see.
“In the last couple years, our sheds have been rooted through, stores broken into about four or five times. You can’t really have insurance for your own plot, the allotment, or the stores. So it’s really restricted how we run things now.”
Those who have allotments in the five acre-site, which has more than 130 plots, no longer leave their garden equipment there, out of "fear" it will be nicked. They’ve had rotavators, strimmers and lawn mowers all stolen, to name a few choice items.
“Even after we replaced them, it’s happened again. It became a pointless exercise really,” admits Mal, who’s a self-employed landscaper.
“We don’t hold stuff on site because we’re just in fear of it being taken again. It makes things harder for us to manage the site and get the site looking good.”
'More than 20 sheds ransacked'
Most recently, a trespasser entered the Clarkesfield Allotments site at about 1am on Saturday (April 23) and “ransacked” more than 20 sheds, trashing their contents.
Mal says the stores are now left open as the cost of the “structural damage isn’t worth what’s stored in the sheds”, despite this, the sheds were still smashed apart.
Recounting the horrifying discovery on Saturday morning, Mal said: “I noticed straight away that one of the shed doors was left open which alerted me. By the time I got to my shed, I saw my friend’s shed doors were open as well.
“In my shed, they’d just thrown everything all over the floor, looking for whatever they wanted, and hadn’t even taken anything. Just ransacked it. I don’t know whether if it’s kids bedevilment or somebody desperate for money to try and find something to sell. I don’t know.
“It’s disheartening really, the whole point of the allotment is that it’s a place where you can escape to, you can create your own food, chillout and relax. To have thought of worrying whether everything is still going to be there when you turn up in the morning, it is a constant worry.
“It does make you angry and a lot of plot holders get really angry about it. We’re constantly trying to develop the site and make the site as good as we can but these individuals are making it a lot more awkward for us. We can’t even have our kit there, we’ve got to store it at home and bring it in. It makes it a real pain. Some people end up packing it in.”
