1:26pm Monday 21st December 2009
By Ash Bolton
IT’S a victory for common sense.
That is the view of Southampton gardeners after a ban preventing them from using barbed wire on their allotments was overturned by council bosses.
As revealed by the Daily Echo, health and safety chiefs at Southampton City Council banned the deterrent at allotments plagued with vandalism – in case thieves hurt themselves.
But horticulturists have now been told they can use barbed wire providing it’s a minimum of 1.8 metres from the ground and there are warning notices.
The council U-turn comes just days after mindless thugs impaled a chicken on a garden fork before destroying crops at an allotment off Peartree Avenue.
Grandad Mervyn Hobden, 67, a former Merchant Navy pump man, of Thornhill, whose allotments at Muddy Bottom East have been repeatedly vandalised, said: “It’s a victory for common sense.
“It’s going to be a big help preventing the type of vandalism that we get here all too often. But it will be years before the council get round to putting barbed wire up as they say they don’t have any money.”
Sonia Blandford, treasurer of Southampton Allotment and Garden Association, said: “This is definitely good news.
“We have to send out the right message that it’s private property.
If people hurt themselves while breaking in then that’s their problem.”
A spokesman for Southampton City Council, added: “We are pleased to say that barbed wire and protective fencing can now be put up around our allotments as long as it complies with the required standard.
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