Tools, strawberries and even packets of biscuits are regularly stolen from an allotment site, now the community is fighting back - with a hedge.

Dozens of volunteers gave up their Sunday to plant a thick Hazel and Hawthorn hedge in the hope it will keep out petty thieves who target the Tamworth Farm Allotments in Mitcham at least once a week.

Wimbledon Times:

Young gardeners help Phil Smith plant hedgerow saplings 

Pete Lawrence, who is the allotment committee secretary, said it was disheartening for the hundreds of gardeners who give up their time to tend the plots to have their precious produce stolen.

The members are hoping the hedge - made from deliberately spiky species, will deter would-be thieves who think nothing of pinching strawberries, courgettes and biscuits as well as tools left in garden sheds.

It will run alongside an existing fence which regularly gets damaged.

Mr Lawrence said: "Psychologically it’s quite significant if people’s produce gets taken if they have been working hard growing it.

"If someone has a shed regularly broken into it’s quite disheartening.

"If I leave anything there I hide it and hope for the best."

Mr Lawrence said the committee had worked with neighbourhood police officers and the council to improve security, and it did have CCTV cameras on parts of the allotment but not all.

Part of the allotment in London Road, Mitcham, is run by Merton Council and part by Sustainable Merton, which brought along bird boxes for the children on Sunday.

From October this year, the allotment committee will take over more of the running of the plots.

They are working on putting together a re-claimed timber shed where they will host a variety of events and workshops and run a small shop to sell seeds and other gardening items.

As well as hedge planting on Sunday, April 26, areas of wildflower were sown and the team helped to establish a plot for a lavender nursery.