Volunteers left ‘devastated’ after vandalism at community garden in Peterborough

On Wednesday morning (May 26), volunteers at Nene Valley Community Centre on Candy Street, discovered that their vegetable patch had been vandalised overnight.

Planted in the garden were pumpkin seeds which were going to be ready for the centre’s Halloween Community Event. Each of the children that had helped to plant them were to be given one each.

The vandals pulled these out of the ground and just left them sitting next to the soil.

The discovery has left both the volunteers and children, many of whom have special needs, who tend to the garden devastated.

The centre are now appealing for anyone who may have seen something from 4pm onwards of Tuesday to get in touch. An online statement from Nene Valley Community Centre said: “Last night (May 25) our vegetable patch was destroyed by mindless vandals, the volunteers and children that have worked hard on this were devastated this morning (May 26).

“The children using this area have special needs and are really distressed and struggling to understand why someone would do this, and to be honest so are we.

“We had grown pumpkins from seeds and planted by volunteers, these plants were growing ready for our Halloween Community Event where we wanted to give all the children a free pumpkin.

“Mindless vandalism has destroyed this, and happened on Tuesday night from 4pm, we found it like this on Wednesday morning.

“The plants were pulled up and just piled up on the side, so it was on purpose and deliberate.

“If anyone saw or heard anything, please get in touch, anything would be greatly appreciated.”

After seeing the post, many people have come forward to donate new plants and seedlings, which the centre has said that they are so thankful for and will mean so much to the children.

These donations can be dropped off at Nene Valley Community Centre between 9am-1pm Monday to Friday.