A pensioner is calling for better security at an allotment site in Bradford after it was again targeted by thieves and vandals.

Robert Dunlop, 70, said about £1,000 of damage had been caused to his plot during a series of incidents at the site in Avenue Road, West Bowling, since February.

In the latest incident vandals pulled up plants, shattered three panes of glass on his shed and stole gardening tools locked inside.

They also smashed a greenhouse on the site, slashed a polytunnel, left taps running and stole tools belonging to other plot holders.

Mr Dunlop, who spends up to nine hours a week tending to his plot, said: “I felt like crying. I feel like giving up but another allotment holder told me I must carry on because of all the work I’ve done here. It makes you feel that way. It’s cost me hundreds.

“The allotment service has offered me a year’s free rent, which is worth £66, but that’s not enough. I want somewhere where I can leave my tools because you just don’t know what you will need to use.”

Mr Dunlop said the situation had got worse since fencing around the site was taken down so it could be replaced.

He said: “There’s no security to stop people walking through. If they had put something up it might have been a deterrent but there’s nothing.”

Bradford Council’s principal property services officer Belinda Gaynor said: “We placed an order for repairs to the existing fence and the installation of a new fence to the rear of the site in February.

“Before the improvements could be carried out it was necessary to clear vegetation along the site boundary.

“This has now been completed and work to improve the boundary fence will begin today.

“It is the tenant’s responsibility to ensure that any equipment that they choose to leave on a plot is securely stored.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said officers had visited the allotments and given crime prevention advice to tenants.

Neighbourhood policing officers were also keeping an eye on the plots during their patrols, the spokesman said.