Community farm vandalism getting 'worse and worse'

Vandalism at a community farm is using up resources dedicated to helping families in the area, the group that runs it have said.

Torched caravans, destroyed playhouses and ripped-out CCTV cameras are a number of the incidents the team at Kirkstall Valley Farm have experienced at the site in west Leeds.

Adele Rae, chief executive of Kirkstall Valley Development Trust, said the community group "tries to be really resourceful, but there's an end to our energy".

"The trouble is that the money that we're using to pick up the pieces is money that we'd use to feed people and do affordable events for families in the area," she said.

"They've kicked over sheds, smashed up Wendy houses, it's a huge amount of damage.

"And the problem is that we need stuff down here to be able to function and we just can't because we've got to have everything in storage."

The lease was signed for Kirkstall Valley Farm in 2021, after a lengthy campaign and funding appeal.

It currently provides 135 veg boxes per week to local households, with more than 40 people waiting to join the scheme.

However, over the past two years, anti-social behaviour at the site has gradually got "worse and worse", according to Rae.

The agricultural co-operative grows food on a former allotments site.

West Yorkshire Police are appealing for anyone with information about the offences to come forward.

Rae said the force had been "supportive" and "done as much as they can", but the identity of those causing the damage remained unknown.

"The levels of destruction, they must be really sad, angry young people," she said.

"And it's awful to think that children are in that state where their pleasure is smashing up Wendy houses. I mean, it's just all a bit pathetic."

The farm employs a team of part-time growers, and an admin worker, but is reliant on a team of volunteers giving their time to help maintain the land.

Rae added repeated vandalism meant they had to invest time and effort into projects that kept having to be restarted, rather than new jobs.

"Their time is really precious, and we value that. To ask them to keep doing things that keep getting destroyed is not fair," she said.

Andrea Policarpo is a regular volunteer, and said she loved coming to the farm because "it is a lovely place, you do some exercise, meet people - it's refreshing".

"A farm brings a lot of things – they have kids, elderly people, people who don't go out. They interact with other people, I think it's fundamental," she said.

"We are very lucky to have this space."

She added: "Someone needs to take ownership of this problem. Those people should pay for what they've done."

Kirkstall Valley Development Trust are raising funds to install permanent CCTV cameras on the site, with a plan to connect the farm to the mains electricity supply.

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