[acrobatic toast]

The idea for composting human waste as a intruder deterrent is brilliant the fumes alone should overwhelm them death by minging .A couple of days of choice currys should improve the blend somewhat as well .

[lacewing]

My husband bought a sign for the shed door which read.... 'Beware of the Ferret',  it seems to be doing the trick.

[gorymorph]

re security of allotment, i was wondering if razor wire, land mine's, and machine gun towers would be legal and acceptable or would this be considered  "going a little to far" we have had a few incidents of vandalism as opposed to theft, ie super glue on padlocks etc. we have one side of our allotment that is quiet open and to secure it tempererily we have stacked pallets end on to deter problems, we hope eventually to put hawthorne, bleckberry etc in, but obviously this will take time to mature. There is a 10foot deep ditch to the open side. anyone got any other ideas

[NigelB]

We have excellent relationships with our local community police officers - one of the PCSOs has allotments as one of her responsibilities.  She drops into the association shop most weekends and they encourage us to liaise with them whenever there are difficulties.

We were also given some money by a police fund to contribute towards CCTV hosted on the next door school site.

Not all police are the jobsworths you so cynically describe.

Hi Yorkie1,
Cynical? Moi? 

I'll say only this. Not all police-persons, or even Pcso's, have allotment-responsibility as you so un-cynically describe...   And while I'm happy for you that your local plod seem keen on protecting your plot, I doubt it's the norm.
I called our local police a few weeks ago, after seeing some young adults running up and down playing on the local primary school roof at 7:30 one evening. 'Thanks' they said, 'We'll get right on it......'
Some two hours later, and well after dark, I received a return 'courtesy call' from the police asking if I could still see the offenders on the roof!
I informed them that all that was left was the damage, and that if I had called them and said a teacher was giving a couple of intruders a good ticking-off for wrecking his school roof, they'd have been down in a quick one-two and probably pepper-sprayed the poor bloke.

[Sue32]

There are lots of different types of theft around here - there's just plain vandalism, some produce theft, some tools to order theft (only took the communal strimmer and left the hedge cutter), some produce to order ==> 3 rare variety of fruit trees on trials, some small tools that reappear in teh local boot fair, and some you really don't understand - why did they take the kettle and a ball of string? 
The site is fenced like fort knox with teh big high iron railings stuff they use to keep kids off railway lines and teh police do try and call by, but it still goes on. 
No solutions but it is heartbreaking to lose your veggies as they have got real blood sweat & tears in them, even more than tools etc, just for some-ones fun.

[jamesbrownontheroad]

Going back to the OP, try making enquiries with your association leader about better fencing. We've only just moved to our site in the last six months, but a year or two ago a couple of the more motivated and civic minded plot holders managed to secure city council funding for an eight foot metal fence. It's green, quite unobjectionable and has sharp bits on top. Money does exist for these things - it just needs finding! Consider your local city or town councillor as well - handily for us ours has a plot

Secondly, be very cautious when dealing with any intruder. Despite that fence I disturbed a group of teenage boys attempting to steal a duck from a neighbouring plot and knew that I had to be careful what to do. In the adult v. youth confrontation the police, courts, lawyers etc won't give a (ahem) duck what the context or situation is. So stay away. If you enter into any kind of conversation, just make it known that you are not alone (regardless if it's a lie) and make it clear that five youths may outnumber you, but five allotment gardeners will outnumber them. Call 999, and if it doesn't threaten your own safety (i.e. they don't notice you doing it) photograph them with your camera or cellphone.

The single biggest thing that (I reckon) has made our site safe and secure is that there is a diverse mix of plot holders: people are about almost constantly from sunrise to sunset. A civic pride in the communal areas of the plot helps this: a healthy and lively association can bring people to the site for more than just their own plot, and that makes a difference.

But number one tip, get onto your association leader and council representatives to find money to make your site secure. Report every break-in, no matter how minor. If the police are notified of repeated incidents, they have a duty to deal with it.

[GillyHen]

Going back to the OP, try making enquiries with your association leader about better fencing.

That's probably not possible, unfortunately, give the public footpaths that run through the site.

I have built up a 'fence' from felled trees/logs/branches and found a good pallet for a gate - while it is not impermeable to someone who is determined, it is enough to make me feel a little better, and hopefully deter sufficiently anyone considering a look inside ... it's less exposed and you can't step over the wall anymore at least!  I made a bit of a step in the mudbath out of some found bricks too.

.

[GillyHen]

p.s. it's not all just held together with string 

[Ice]

p.s. it's not all just held together with string 

No, some of it looks like Blu Tack.

[jamesbrownontheroad]

p.s. it's not all just held together with string 

Sounds like the spirit of my shed... it's the bits of wood that are holding the nails in