THREE Runcorn allotment tenders woke up on Friday to discover their vegetable gardens had been destroyed by fire.

Vandals had broken into the Halton Council allotments on Haddocks Wood and burned down three sheds and a greenhouse, leaving the patches devastated.

Sam Robinson, 80, said: "It was just deliberate malice."

The late flowering of plants this year meant everything was ruined. But he vowed to carry on: "I am not going to give it up. One of my mates has already organised some temporary sheds and we will repair the greenhouse."

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