An allotment shop at a nature park has been the latest building in the area to be destroyed in a suspected arson attack. The shop, which stored and sold equipment to allotment users at Forest Farm in Whitchurch, Cardiff, has been left completely destroyed as a result of fire.
Other suspected arson attacks have taken place in the area over the past few years with the bird hide and shed being destroyed in June last year and another bird hide being destroyed just a few months later in October. The hides were also targeted in 2019 as a bird hide was destroyed in a suspected arson attack.
Lin Dimond is chairman of the allotment and runs the now destroyed shop, which was discovered on the morning of October 21. She believes that the suspected arson attacks have become a growing problem since lockdown. She said: “In the last three years we have had five sheds burnt down. It’s just ongoing and people get fed up.
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“We have a lot of damage there. We usually have kids breaking in and they just tend to set the sheds on fire and steal a few things. We have also had a shed broken into and they ripped the roof off. But this is a big one because they have come armed with equipment to saw off the hinges of the crate."
The damage caused at Forest Farm:
The shop had been built up over the last 15 years and Lin said the allotment now faces high costs to replace the equipment that was destroyed with just two keys being left after the fire. Lin added that the shipping container cost approximately £4,000 and was "supposed to be indestructible".
“It’s just sickening. It’s a quiet place for people to come and enjoy. We’ve recently been given a Green Flag for it being an area of outstanding development for the community and it’s just been destroyed. It makes you feel that you don’t want to do it anymore," she added.
She says it appears that four hinges on the shipping container's door, which is padlocked, had been cut off in the suspected attack. Lin said: “It’s a quiet area and in the night and there’s no reason for anybody to be up there at all.” She added: “It just makes me want to fight back and start again and carry on. But there are some people up here who just don’t want to bother. They can’t see the point because they do all their hard work and it’s just gone.”
A spokesman from South Wales Police said: "It is such a shame that once again vandals have targeted such a well-used community facility and caused extensive damage to valuable gardening equipment. The fire is believed to have been started during the early hours of Friday, October 21, but unfortunately there is no CCTV at the location, there were no witnesses to the fire, and no items have been left at the scene which would help identify those responsible. Anyone with information is asked to contact us quoting occurrence number *356801."
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