Police investigate after allotment shed burnt down in Totternhoe

The incident happened between 12am and 1am at the allotments near the Church End site, and officers are appealing for information.

The shed belonged to James Deakin, from Dunstable, and he hopes the public can help the police with their enquiries.

He said: “Our allotment shed has been burnt to the ground, it was quite a bad fire and it is not the first time it has happened here.

“A couple of other sheds have been vandalised recently and we built a community shed here, not long after we had finished it someone set fire to it.

“The fire destroyed everything, the shed and everything in it, we have nothing.

“We are new to this and most things in the shed were new and now we have to replace them all.

“This sort of thing puts new people off coming down here and getting involved on the allotments.

“Hopefully this appeal will help jog someone’s memory.”

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue were called to the shed fire at 1.10am, crews from Dunstable attended and used hose reel and stack drags to extinguish the fire.

A spokesman for Bedfordshire Police said: “We received a report of arson at Totternhoe allotments between midnight and 1am on Monday, May 7, and one shed was burnt down, which contained various tools.”

Pauline Ellis, chair of the Totternhoe Allotments Association, said: “We have been targets of theft from sheds already this year.

“But arson is mindless and dangerous.

“It is very frustrating as there seems to be nothing anyone can do to stop this behaviour.

“Crime numbers are all we get, but they do not add up to action and go nowhere to reassure us.”

If you have any information on the incident, please report it online via our website or call 101, quoting reference JD/20775/2018.