Thieves have stolen tools worth more than £1,000 used by volunteers to weed cemeteries in Brighton and Portslade.
The thieves smashed their way into a locked store at Woodvale Cemetery, in Brighton, and stole the strimmers and tools used by the Woodvale Volunteer Group.
The group has set up a crowdfunder on Gofundme. One volunteer said: “On Friday 21 November the group’s workshop premises at Woodvale Cemetery was broken into with the loss of all their strimming equipment and other valuable tools.
“Of highest importance are the two main strimmers and associated equipment.
“The storeroom was securely locked but the thieves smashed their way in and stole everything.
“The council are, obviously, insured against theft but the high cost of the insurance excess means the claim would be uneconomical.
“This means that the group has to try to replace the equipment themselves.
“To that end they have started a GoFundMe page to try and raise enough money to replace the stolen equipment.”
The group’s work has won particular praise in Portslade where a small team has transformed the cemetery.
The volunteers have worked with the council to help conserve, restore, repair and maintain Portslade as well as other cemeteries in Brighton and Hove.
When the Woodvale Volunteer Group started work at Portslade Cemetery in 2022, residents had complained that they were hard pushed to find a grave under the waist-high grass.
There were reports in the media from concerned local people and councillors were regularly contacted about it.
Since then, the small group of volunteers has worked hard to turn Portslade Cemetery into a place of neat and tidy tranquillity that everyone can respect and take pride in.
The grass is now trained and, more recently, the volunteer group identified a number of areas to leave to natural growth to encourage wildlife – insects and flowers – to take natural hold over the ground.
The results have proved impressive and the group has been complimented and thanked by people visiting a loved one’s grave or just walking through the cemetery.
As one of the volunteers said: “All this progress has now been placed at risk and the group’s work at Woodvale and Portslade has come to a grinding halt because of the actions of criminal theft.”
To donate to the crowdfunder, click here.
To contact the volunteer group, led by John, can also be contacted at woodvalevolunteergroup@gmail.com.
Unbelievable – who would do such a thing ? Some people have no shame. There can be no excuse for such vile behaviour.
Someone out there will know who did it – do the decent thing and report them.
Good luck with the crowdfunding and try and remember most people are not scumbags.
There is a place not a million miles away from the cemetery that houses drug addicts, not pointing the finger, but just saying.
EDB still has some funds left, I’m sure the resident panels would be more than happy to allocate some of them to replace their tools.
This is low.
Discusting really low