Seven sheds destoyed by arsonists in latest attack on Peterborough allotments

Site managers Mick and Jackie Coulson were called to the Wesleyan Road allotments at 3.30am this morning where fire crews were battling a number of blazing buildings.

Mr Coulson told the Peterborough Telegraph: “We don’t know what has been lost in terms of contents until tenants come and look. We have contacted them and this morning we will have to look at the extent of the damage.

“It is heartbreaking but we have learned over years to take it in our stride. This is just the latest blow for allotments in Peterborough.”

Mr Coulson said fire crews tackled fires in four sheds on one part of the site, two in another location and a single shed fire in a separate area.

He said he believed other sheds had also been targeted.

“Judging by the way some pallets have been stacked against some buildings we think they were targeting more,” he added.

Mr Coulson said allotments across the city have been plagued by break-ins and fires.

“We have, on our site, suffered very badly with a major fire last year which destroyed our community room, and had several major break–ins resulting in a loss of equipment.” he added.

“But in general the Peterborough Allotment scene has, in this last 18 months, suffered 35 reported break ins, for 2019 and 17 to date this year, nothing has been recovered and most of the crimes against the allotments just go down as statistics.

“We get a certain amount of support from police but this type of crime is not high priority.”

Mick and Jackie are joint secretaries of the Peterborough Allotment Consortium and set up Allotment Watch several years ago. But they say police had to withdraw from that scheme because or resource issues.

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