The onion war!
Allotment sabotage, secret meetings in sheds, threats with a garden fork... row sows division in a Yorkshire town
THEY are usually havens of tranquillity. But the allotments in a picturesque Yorkshire town have become the scene of a bitter battle – over the price of onions.
A petty row has escalated to allegations of sabotage, secret meetings in sheds and even a garden fork wielded in anger.
As relations between rival factions in Yarm reach new lows, the town clerk has taken to wearing a policestyle body camera to protect himself from unruly gardeners.
one tenant was evicted from his plot after being accused of driving his car at another.
The same man was then called a ‘troublemaker’ and threatened with a garden fork.
A meeting held in a garden shed by a group of green- fingered plotters was even secretly recorded, it is alleged.
The police became involved after one holder’s vegetable patches were doused in weedkiller, just one of a string of incidents of crim- inal damage. It is now a battle for ‘the hearts and minds of Yarm allotment holders’, remarked one local in the North Yorkshire town.
The dispute dates back to August 2015 when the allotment shop, run by Yarm and District Gardeners Association (YDGA) since its inception in the 1970s, put up the price of onions to £2.80 per kilo.
The decision caused a rift between the YDGA’s chairman Bob Wegg and the secretary, who wanted to sell them at £2.20 a kilo.
Mr Wegg, 69, a retired engineer, was said to be furious that his secretary was undermining him.
The row was so bitter that the council, which owns the plots, disbanded the YDGA and closed the shop, saying it no longer recognised the organisation as the body for the town’s allotment holders.
A source in the YDGA said: ‘Bob was furious about the onions, I think he felt it was a slight against his authority.
‘He stormed out of the hut and soon after resigned from the YDGA. It started a bitter rift that has never been healed and I don’t think now it ever will be.’
A splinter group was then set up – and the feud took a sinister turn last week when Mr Wegg’s vegetable patch was sabotaged with weedkiller and his waterbutt poisoned.
‘Things have become very heated lately,’ Mr Wegg said. ‘There have been a lot of incidents so we’re reporting each one to the police so they can see the bigger picture.’ He denied there was a row over onions.
Councillor Marjorie Simpson, of the Yarm Independents Association, said: ‘It’s all become too silly for words and really you would tell children off for some of the behaviour we have seen.
‘It began with the argument over onions and developed into two factions on the allotments, the established group and the new one.
‘We were even told of a secret recording made of one group plotting against the other while sitting in a shed.’
The battle has seen George Wilkinson, 62, served with notice to quit his allotment by July 9 after he was accused of ‘vexatious remarks’ against the town clerk Geoff Price.
He has also been accused of driving his car too quickly in the allotments and frightening a gardener he disagreed with.
Mr Wilkinson, who denies the claim, said: ‘I felt I was being intimidated on the allotment.
‘A man accused me of being a troublemaker and waved his gardening fork in my face. The whole thing has become ridiculous and should never have reached this point.’
Recent meetings of Yarm Town Council have been held behind closed doors to avoid confrontations with angry allotment holders.
Mr Price defended using the body camera. He said: ‘I have had a couple of cases where people have been trying to intimidate me.
‘I also want to protect myself against any false allegations made against me as I have had that as well. I decided that a body camera was the best way to do that so I just wear it as I go about my duties.
‘I have been a clerk on a parish council before but I have never come across anything like this.’