A CIVIC group has been left ‘sickened’ after the tools they use to maintain parks and play areas were stolen.
Thieves broke into Bacup Pride’s storage room, cutting the padlock off the door, replacing it with a cheaper one, and taking between £200 and £300 of spades, shovels, forks, hoes, garden shears and a wheel barrow.
The tools had been bought with grant cash awarded to Sharneyford playground to be used by the group on the maintenance of the area, and were also used to work on plant beds and other greenery in Bacup town centre.
Paul Greenwood, resources officer for the group, said he spoke to the owner of a nearby sandwich shop in Burnley Road who heard activity at the storage unit at 5am on the morning of the incident.
He said: “When I got there, the lock had been changed and when I went in I saw all the new, more expensive tools were gone.
“Fortunately, there were other tools left, so we can continue doing some work, but I think they were going to return and take the rest in another wheelbarrow load, because they put a lock on the door to avoid suspicion and so they could get back in.
“We’re constantly using those tools though, so it is definitely a blow. When I saw what they’d done, I was disappointed, but a colleague I was with got quite angry. They weren’t insured so we're reliant on donations.
“I always make sure items are out of sight, so I think whoever stole the tools might have watched people coming and going from the storage room.
“I’m sickened that this has happened because the tools were publicly-funded, but I’m also too old to get too riled up about it because you just don’t know the circumstances people are in.”
Stubbylee Community Greenhouses, also in Bacup, had more than £3,000 of tools bought with a Big Lottery grant stolen during a break in to the centre in June but survived the ‘kick in the teeth’ after many donations by businesses and individuals.
The charity has now pledged to give Bacup Pride any tools they can spare.
The theft from Bacup Pride happened at around 5am on Tuesday, September 9.
A Lancashire Police spokesman said: “If anyone saw anything suspicious in the area around the time, or has any information on the incident, they should call police on 101 and quote log reference LC-2014/09/09-0785.”