"Frogleg" wrote in message
news
How *are* allotments protected/restricted? I've never seen an
arrangement with huts and semi-permanent participation (in the US).
There are a few "community gardens" locally. One experiment in an
'inner city' area was completely vandalized about halfway through the
growing season. My own plot (20'x40') was on a gov't site (NASA) and
out of reach of most yobbos. Large tools (tillers) were kept in a shed
with a lock all members of the 'garden club' had the combination to.
Hose(pipe)s, sprinklers, and small tools were left undisturbed. The
occasional pumpkin or tomato *would* disappear overnight, of course.

So what are the usual arrangements to prevent theft and vandalism?

It varies. One site near here has a fence and gates and each allotmenteer
has a key for the padlock on the gates. Unfortunately they are amongst a
council estate with loads of yobs and have suffered lots of
vandalism/damage. They have planted blackberries around the boundaries and
this has apparently helped somewhat.

Another site locally has a set of gates and a committee member opens the
site daily and blows a whistle 10 mins before locking up. That site has also
had various problems, I believe all the pumpkins got nicked or smashed up
just before last Halloween.

Our site is unfortunately open to all and sundry, and last week as you
heard, we did get "done", all the sheds on site were broken into and all the
decent tools nicked. The site is bounded at various points by a main road
junction, a golf course, the rear of a couple of industrial units, and some
houses, fortunately not an estate. Three houses have their back gardens
adjoining our plot, and another three adjoin the next one down.
Our shed had never had a lock on it, just a nail through the hasp because
A- I knew that they would get round it by whatever means and why have to
replace a padlock as well as tools?, and B- I was hoping that our proximity
to the neighbouring houses would provide some protection.

Sadly it didn't and we now no longer possess a fork or spade. Or various
other things, I won't bore you with the details. At least we didn't lose
anything of great value, all tools were of the budget variety because I knew
we were likely to suffer this at some point.

Incidentally, the police officer who came down to have a look and take our
statements was none too impressed because 8 sheds were done, and that means
8 victims which in turn means he has to record 8 crimes, so there go his
statistics.

Still, it's only Feb now, and that means we have time to get some more tools
before the work gets going. The thing that bothers me now is if I go to a
car boot sale to get some more, I may be buying someone else's nicked tools.
We went to a car boot the Sunday after the theft hoping that we would see
ours there, but of course no such luck.

I am now working on some surprises for the next thieving scrotes. Anybody
know of a website where I can buy booby traps, land mines etc?


Steve