GAZETTE & HERALD: Beversbrook allotments may be surrounded with barbed or razor wire fencing in a bid to beat thieves and vandals.

Calne Town Council is looking into the possibility of installing security fencing around the allotments on the outskirts of the town after a spate of break-ins.

The council decided not to install CCTV because of the expense, which is estimated at nearly £7,000.

The new allotments at Beversbrook were created after the town council sold the former Newcroft allotment site for housing.

Allotment holders have always objected to the relocation because they have further to travel and the site is more vulnerable.

Newcroft allotments were surrounded by housing but the Beverbrook site is in a field off the bypass where it is not overlooked.

In the last year the site has been broken into as well as vandalised several times.

In February hundreds of pounds worth of tools were stolen and, in a separate attack, the toilet cisterns were smashed, causing the council's insurance premium to rise significantly.

Allotment society chairman Peter Highton said many people were deterred from using the site.

"It is very exposed which is why it keeps getting broken into.

"Women in particular feel very vulnerable," he said.

Town council officers are investigating the costs involved in setting up the security fences.