Metal gates bolster security at Stoke-on-Trent allotment

New metal gates and locks will be fitted at an allotment in Stoke-on-Trent to prevent vandals breaking in.

Intruders have been using gardeners' sheds, at the site on Bycars Road in Burslem, as toilets, the Sentinel reported.

Now Stoke-on-Trent council will install the new measures after a string of complaints.

Allotment holders have also campaigned for three years for new security fencing after the wooden one at the site fell into disrepair.

"Youths are just walking in and out because the wooden fence has been broken down," Terry Coleman, one of the site's gardeners, told the newspaper.

Similarly a wire fence put up has not bolstered security, he explained.

"Footballs come over from the nearby Dimensions Leisure Centre and easily break a hole in the wire fence.

"That allows the vandals to get in and wreck everything."

Councillor Hazel Lyth told the newspaper new gates and security locks will be introduced at the site.

"Sites which have already had the new lock system installed have reported significant reductions in fly-tipping and theft," she told the newspaper.