Despite regular verbal, written and emailed moans to the plot holders on our site for the last person out to lock the gate, it is just as regularly left open ... and surprise surprise tools are going missing and crops stolen.
Any tips on how you get round this issue on your site would be very welcome.
Thanks
We have 2 gates - a pedestrian gate on a Yale which everyone has a key for so it's always closed and locked. The vehicle gate is opened every morning and and locked every evening by a volunteer. We are very lucky to have a volunteer willing to do this.
We keep the gates locked all the time. Every plot holder has a key and is expected to lock the gate behind them going in as well as out.
This means the allotment is always locked overnight and if your the only one there you feel safe.
... but we still get stuff nicked.
Put a notice up - "Offenders who leave the gate unlocked may lose the right to a key". What about ensuring something is put in the contract renewal for next year along the lines that plot-holders could lose their plot or something?
QuoteWe keep the gates locked all the time. Every plot holder has a key and is expected to lock the gate behind them going in as well as out.
Same here Slugkiller. We have three gates, at least one of which is for vehicles (the one I use). All are kept locked all the time. People have had warnings about leaving the gates open but it happens very rarely and is usually due to a distraction rather than laziness - the gate I use opens almost directly onto a busy dual carriageway near the North Circular/M1 junction and it's a bit of an exercise in concentration!
I am lucky where I am. One of the plot holders lives in a house with a garden backing onto the site. He checks the gate is locked at night. But we are all careful to lock the gate. Once I locked someone in.. I did not see him on his plot and he had popped in to pick some beans and had not brought his key.
Our gates are permanently locked and the padlocks that are used are the sort where the key cannot be removed unless the mechanism is in the locked position. So you may as well lock the gate - it seems to work.