A volunteer at an East End church community garden is dismayed after the garden was broken into by youths.
Jillian Reilly visited the garden to find that it had once again been used as a meeting place for teens to socialise, smoke and set fires.
The community garden is owned by Gathamlock and Craigend church and was set up as a gift to the community, with local nursery and primary pupils regularly using the garden, with Jillian saying the recent vandalism is a clear result of the lack of services for youths in the area.
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Jillian told Glasgow Live: "We've had issues in the past wee while of young people climbing over the fence and going into the garden.
"But on Saturday (February 4) there was a birthday party in the church and in broad daylight and while the church was full, a group of young people decided to jump the fence and break into the community garden.
"I don't think they were deliberately vandalising, none of the crops were ruined or anything. But their actions have still caused damage, we've now got broken bins and chairs that need replaced. They also set fire to a book which has caused some damage.
"We haven't reported this to the police as they're stretched enough as it is. We just hope parents can talk to kids and make them realise this isn't fair."
The limited volunteers will now have to spend their valuable time cleaning up the mess left behind, rather than focusing on growing more crops and improving the garden.
Jillian added: "It's just really, really disheartening.
"We don't get many volunteers as it is and I think things like this really puts people off, who wants to volunteer to grow food and maintain a garden and then end up just tidying up a load of unnecessary mess?
"I think it highlights a real lack of community services for teenagers, there's very little in the area for them to do. All of the council cuts hugely impact local areas and it is a real shame.
"We would like to encourage anyone who would like to be involved in the garden to come along and chat with us, we think that the more people use the garden the less destruction there will be as youngsters will be more wary of visiting a busy space."
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