Arson in Aberdeen

[Aberdeenplotter]

As if it wasn't bad enough to have 152% increases inflicted on full plot holders up here in Aberdeen, the hidden costs are very apparent to some plotters in Bucksburn. On Thursday evening. one plotholder had his shed broken into and fuel kept for his rotovator kept there stolen. Stolen for good reason? No Chance!! Two other sheds on the site torched, razed to the ground complete with tools etc. One of the plots recently taken over by a couple with two young kids too. Fire service thought it not necessary to involve police!!. In any event, police heavily involved at moment with fallout from helicopter tragedy in North Sea. Police didn't turn up at all after reporting incident yesterday but now fully committed to trying to catch perpetrator. Couple of items possibly will have fingerprints and there were footprints left in a recently dug plot as well. Our plots have no facilities at all apart from a single water tap services more than thirty plots. We have been shouting for security fencing to no avail. Hopefully this will help us push that forward.

[Mrscrob]

Awww what a shame! Can't believe that happened. Hard work, time and money down the drain. I'm at Greyhope Road and a number of plots have been broken into over the past wee while at the car park end. Don't know what kind of fencing you have at Bucksy but at Greyhope it would be easy to climb (not for me tho!) and the lighting is terrible. Hope you get things sorted out and the person/people responsible get caught and punished.

[Aberdeenplotter]

The Council has not provided any fencing and any fencing there is has been provided by the plotters themselves. Have you guys at Greyhope and local sites to you done anything about setting up an Allotments Association?

[Gwyndy]

Our site is fully fenced but it doesn't stop the determined thieves. No-one leaves anything of value in their sheds any more and many people don't even bother to lock them to avoid the the damage caused by locks being smashed off. I fancy landmines but they might wreck the veg!!!

[Mrscrob]

I'm just a newbie to all this so I'm not sure what's been done about this. I was given a copy of the letter about setting up an assoc. when I signed the lease. From speaking to other people I know they've tried asking for things such as portaloos and extra taps but have had no luck.

[Mrscrob]

Electrifying the fence would be out of the question do you think? joking btw!!!

[Gwyndy]

Electrifying the fence would be out of the question do you think? joking btw!!!

Sounds good to me but then I would make Judge Jeffreys look like a softie when it comes to handing out punishments!!

[bubblewrap]

Sounds good to me but then I would make Judge Jeffreys look like a softie when it comes to handing out punishments!!

Castration with a blunt rusty razor blade without anaesthetic seems a good punishment.

Our site has 8' security fencing & is surrounded by houses & some plot holders live in those houses I have had the plot for three & a half years now & nothing has gone missing as I have noticed..

[Gwyndy]

Castration with a blunt rusty razor blade without anaesthetic seems a good punishment.

Now THAT is a good idea!!

My shed was broken in to last year and a small spade taken. No great value but sentimental attachment as it was the one my late mother always used.

[miffy]

Sorry to hear that, vandalism for the shear hell of it is so pointless and mindless. If people were hungry and stole to eat, not right i know but at least you might be able to get your head around it. Just stealing stuff and vandalising it though is too pointless to contemplate.
I am sorry and i hope they catch whoever has done this so at least you will have closure and not be worrying about the same thing happening again.

[allotmentlady]

Sickos eh? Its a terrible shame whats happened, maybe u can do some good by going to your local newspaper and shouting off about it. Have you a society on site that could contact Allotments Regeneration Initiative - [1]Home as they deal with grants etc to make sites safer....

[Aberdeenplotter]

Hi Mrscrob,

I think toilets may well be a bit much to hope for at the moment given the state of finances in Aberdeen. Which site are you on? Local Authorities are supposed to allow free access to the tenancy details of allotments which would make it easy to obtain contact details of all plotters on the sites in your locality making it much easier to try to set up an association. Aberdeen Council hides behind the Data protection legislation though. However, when we went about setting up our Association in Bucksburn, the Council co-operated with us by forwarding a letter to all local allotment holders telling them what was happening and our Association is now up and running. The next stage will be to get together with other Associations in the City and forming a federation of Associations. So get in to gear girl and try to get your fellow plotters motivated.

[TonyF]

As they said on tele last night, cut their balls off, paint them gold and sell them as baubles!

This is another of those stories that makes me glad I left the UK and now live in a quiet corner of the world where crime is not too frequent and where anti-social behaviour is dealt with by the community/commune and the little (and not so little) toe rag's parents!

And I'm pleased I'm no longer a policeman in the UK (nor have I been for many years), I think my blood pressure/levels of frustration would be in the stratosphere by now!

[MaureenHall]

We have some vandalism on our site too. Not too much at the moment, shed windows broken, that sort of thing. We've got plans to put security fencing round the whole site but it's going to cost £15,000. We've been promised some money from 1 source but we have to come up with the rest in other ways. We're applying to various Lottery funds to help out as it's a new Community Project so hopefully we'll qualify. In the meantime we're trying to raise funds ourselves (not that we'll be able to come up with a fraction of what we need!) We're going to hold a Fundraising Day - table top sale (like a car boot but without the cars) in the morning, Farmers Market / Produce sale during the afternoon, and a Barbecue in the evening, all on spring Bank Holiday Monday.

Hope you manage to get something sorted out at your site, and I agree totally with Bubblewrap's suggestion for dealing with the little toe-rags

[Eyren]

Very sorry to hear your news, Aberdeenplotter - I can only imagine how upset you must all be. We have family in Aberdeenshire, though not near the city...

This is another of those stories that makes me glad I left the UK and now live in a quiet corner of the world where crime is not too frequent

Thankfully it's still not the whole of the UK, Tony. The other day I got a delivery of catfood, which the courier duly left on the doorstep as requested. My husband was bemused by the fact that the courier had also put a delivery card through the letterbox, stating that the box had been left on the doorstep - after all, the box was right there! I had to point out that this was them covering their backsides in case the parcel was stolen - in our quiet little cul-de-sac where we know all our neighbours, we tend to forget what the rest of the world is like