ALLOTMENT owners are devastated after thieves ransacked their sheds and made off with thousands of pounds worth of equipment.

About £7,000 worth of goods were stolen and damaged in the break-in at the Shepherds Cross Street site in Halliwell.

Seventeen allotments and metal storage containers were targeted on the community site, in Elgin Street, which is looked after by over 50 gardeners.

Allotment secretary Julia Parkinson, aged 33, said: “It is absolutely devastating, to be honest. This is a really close community and everyone on here has worked so hard to get things nice. People haven’t got lots of money, we make things and save up to buy things, and then something like this happens and it gets taken away.

"It is just so heartless because this is a community and they’ve just come here to try and make money. What they’ve taken means a lot more to the people here than it does to wherever it has gone.”

Since discovering the crime, the community at Shepherds Cross Street Allotments has rallied together. While some sheds remain untouched, others hard work had been wrecked.

Keith Scowcroft, known as Scowie, aged 71, was on site to help clean up a friend’s shed which was ransacked.

He said: “He put a great deal of effort into that plot and did the cabin up like a little home and someone has come in and devastated it, I’m distraught for the man. This is an atrocity. These are working people and retired people who are putting in a great deal of effort to be self sufficient and this sort of thing simply shouldn’t happen.

“I’ve been here five, going on six, years and most people here are local. It’s part of a community; they have destroyed something that is precious to the community.”

The break-in was discovered by an allotment owner just before 7am in Thursday morning.

Chairman Fred Corr was quickly on the scene and found metal containers – funded by a grant from Bolton Hub – had been broken into, and thieves had used cutters to remove 28 locks. A small outhouse used to store manure and seeds had even been smashed into.

CCTV cameras were also removed and damaged, while goods including two electric generators, three rotivators, a chainsaw, strimmer, drill, mountain bike and various tools were missing.

Up to 17 individual sheds were targeted and thieves used the gardeners own wheelbarrows to cart the goods off the gardens.

Mr Corr, aged 64, added: “I’ve been here since 1989 and seen petty thefts in the past but never anything on this scale.

“It is just hitting me now, I can’t believe the lengths they’ve gone to. People come here for leisure time and that has been spoiled. We will fight on and get things back to normal.”

An image of one of the intruders was captured on CCTV camera and allotment owners believe the thieves gained access via a quiet alleyway near St Josephs Primary School.

Police are investigating and believe the intruders would have been on the site for a number of hours and used a van to take the stolen items away.

Inspector Dave Henthorne, of Bolton South and Central, encouraged plot owners who had been targeted to come forward and report the crimes to the police.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101.