Telford allotments site reopens after £6,500 equipment theft
A Telford allotment that lost £6,500 worth of equipment after thieves broke on to the site has reopened.
Owners and members of Woodside Allotment & Leisure Gardeners Association vowed to move on from the ugly episode, as an official reopening ceremony took place.
About £6,500 worth of items were stolen during a raid on the shop at Woodside Avenue in early December.
And now the allotment has opened its doors again following a refurbishment, restocking and repairs to the site buildings.
But members of the site's management committee say they have had to make some "difficult but necessary" decisions, including that the previous in-house grass management scheme is now contracted out, meaning equipment is no longer kept on site.
The shop will now be run by new volunteer manager Peter Richards and his team and open every weekend from April to October, including public holidays, offering vegetable seedings and bedding plants to plot holders and the community.
Dave Morgan, chairman of Woodside Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Association, said it had been a "difficult" few winter months. He added: "We are glad to have reopened, this was a date we set we were determined to reopen the shop by.
"We are moving on from the episode.
"We have made decisions that will secure us for the future. We have just had a refurbishment of the shop and new initiatives and volunteer managers so we are looking forward to a new growing season after a difficult few winter months."
There are 110 plots on the well screened site at the top of the Ironbridge Gorge and overlooking the distant fields of Broseley. Access to the site is via a lane off Woodside Avenue, up from the Beeches road junction and opposite Warrenway.
