For the third time, the Millfields gardeners’ lockup was broken into last week in broad daylight, and all the tools stolen. Thieves drove a van in at 11 in the morning, cut the padlock, loaded up and left. It seems the theft isn’t covered by insurance. So once again, the gardeners are left without the equipment they need to get on with their work.
There seem to be two underlying problems with the park storage –
- The depot is shared between the park and Hackney Homes. As a result, the depot can be open with no park staff present, and HH staff don’t challenge strangers monkeying with the park lockups and equipment.
- There doesn’t seem to have been any upgrading of locks. A simple box around the padlock would defeat bolt cutters, a pretty standard feature on industrial containers like these.
Maybe if MUG had taken it up with a councillor there would have been action — but why should that have to be how things work?
Can we (now our gardeners have been victims for the third time!) press the council to improve security and is there any chance of getting rid of HH since I believe that is park property and they have nothing to do with the park?