Green-fingered volunteers at Wigan garden plagued by vandals who steal tools and write obscene messages

The Friends of Haigh Walled Kitchen Garden have been dismayed to see their efforts targeted by yobs multiple times over the past 10 months.

While the green-fingered team should be focusing on growing an array of fruits, vegetables and plants, instead they are having to clear up after the nuisance behaviour.

Secretary Dennis Holland said: “It seems to be, we assume, youths breaking into the greenhouse. They have broken panes of glass to get in. They have taken a few tools, like ladders. A few tools we have recovered, but not all of them.”

But it is not just the greenhouse that the vandals have been targeting.

Mr Holland said: “People have seen them walking on the walls and they have been in the garden and appear to have moved the signs for different vegetables around. It’s silly things. They have written some mildly obscene things on walls and in our clocking-in book.

"It looks like they have been messing around. It’s annoying for us, more than anything else. We can’t understand why they are doing it.”

The problem has been reported to the management team at Haigh Woodland Park and security has been stepped up, but they are limited by what can be done to stop the trespassers.

Mr Holland said: “The park have talked about putting CCTV cameras there, but there’s no electricity. There have been extra patrols on, but they can’t be there all the time. As soon as people hear the clanging on the gates of someone unlocking them, they will be off.”

The volunteers fund their work in the garden by holding events and selling their produce in return for a donation – but they are now having to use that money to replace the things that have been stolen or damaged.

They cannot afford to repair everything now though, so will be waiting until work begins to redevelop part of Haigh Woodland Park.

Years ago, Haigh Walled Kitchen Garden would have been used to grow vegetables to be eaten by those at Haigh Hall.