We’ve been burgled.

When Woodvale Volunteer Group started work at Portslade Cemetery in 2022, you were hard pushed to find a grave. Don’t take my word for it, take a look at the Argus archives, Portslade: Man slams Brighton council for overgrown cemetery (TheArgus.co.uk)

Since then, a small group of volunteers have been doing battle with nature to turn your local cemetery into a place of neat and tidy tranquillity that you can have pride in. The grass is now trained, and more recently we have identified a number of areas that will be left to natural growth and encourage wildlife, both insects and flowers, to take natural hold over the ground. The results, I think you will agree, are fairly impressive.

Unfortunately, we have been thwarted and our work at Woodvale and Portslade has come to a grinding halt because of the actions of the selfish few.

On Friday 21st November our workshop premises at Woodvale Cemetery was broken into with the loss of all our strimming equipment and other tools.

Of highest importance, the two main strimmers and associated equipment.

Stihl FS91-R (£490-£635)

Einhell GP-BC 36/430 Li BL-Solo (Battery strimmer) (£200)

4 X Einhell 18V 4,0Ah Batteries (£100)

1 X Einhell Power X-Twincharger (£34)

plus a toolbox full of hand tools (£???)

(prices vary depending where we can get them from)

To maintain the levels of grass care you have come to expect from us, it is vital that we replace this equipment as soon as practically possible. Every week that goes by is a week that we are unable to work, a week that reverses all the efforts we have made so far.

The cost to replace these important assets is. £1,000 and we desperately need your help.