Vandals drive allotment holders off their land
VIOLENCE and intimidation is forcing allotment holders off their plots in Wirral according to gardeners from the borough.
At the Thornton allotments site in Bidston, the problem has become so severe almost half have abandoned their allotments because of problems from vandals.
Clive Ransom, Thornton Allotments Site Secretary, said the “wanton destruction of property and crops at Thornton allotments in Bidston took a sinister turn” in recent weeks.
He described an incident in which a teenager “ran up to the wholly inadequate railings on the site and hurled abuse at the four ladies who were diligently working on their allotment plots”.
He said: “During the incident, the worst possible language was used and was clearly designed to intimidate the allotmenteers.”
Mr Ransom added: “Thornton allotments are no stranger to vandalism.
“Indeed, it was this that caused the abandonment of the site by all but two hardy plot holders who clung to their plots until the group, Want (What Allotments Need Today), came along and funded the renovation of the site.”
But Mr Ransom said that since June last year, seven plot-holders – almost half the total – have abandoned their land “because of the heartbreak of seeing their property and crops wantonly destroyed by mindless vandalism”.
He said having attended a number of other allotment sites as well as the Wirral Allotment Site Secretary meetings, he has found out this is a problem on the vast majority of sites across the borough.
Mr Ransom added: “Over the past 20 years, there has been a lack of due care and attention paid to the allotments on the Wirral by the borough council to the point that many of them have inadequate fencing, paths, water and suffer from extreme forms of vandalism.
“Even the police, who have visited Thornton allotments, have told us that unless adequate fencing is provided, we will continue to suffer destruction of our property and crops.”
Wirral has 41 allotment sites administered by the council, containing nearly 1,700 plots, with 92% of them let.
The council says it has an allotment strategy, which the culture, tourism and leisure scrutiny committee recommended for approval in November.
The strategy proposes to carry out security audits of all allotment sites to assess current levels of security and make realistic recommendations as to how any problems can be addressed.
Tony Niblock, chairman of the Wirral Allotments Secretaries Group, said other sites had suffered although the Thornton site was among the worst.
He said: “My site near Claughton village went through a bad time with vandalism a few years ago, and in West Kirby they had vandalism just this week – the secretary there told me it was the first time in 40 years.”
There were fears the Thornton site would close because people did not want to put up with the vandalism there, despite a waiting list in Wirral of more than 500 for an allotment.
The council said a brand new security fence would cost in the region of £36,000, which far exceeds the income the council makes from letting all of its plots across the borough (£24,400) and is more than half the entire allotment budget for 2007-8 across all 41 sites (£64,400).
In a letter to Clive Thornton, Wirral’s director of regeneration, said: “There are clearly issues to be addressed, not least about how allotments are funded in the future.”
A spokesman for the council said: “In the case of the current issues around Thornton allotments, council officials remain in ongoing dialogue with the local association to find workable solutions to the problems being encountered.
“Wirral’s Community Patrol has increased their presence in the area, as have the police, and anyone caught committing offences at the site will be arrested.”
