YOBS who burned a Selby man's allotment shed to the ground were today branded "sick" by allotment holders.

A shed containing gardening tools and expensive equipment was set alight at the Pymble allotments, in Flaxley Road, Selby, on Sunday night.

Firefighters were called to the blaze at about 10.55pm, to find the shed well alight and the flames spreading to plants and vegetables.

The latest arson attack follows a quiet spell after a series of incidents on the allotments spanning the last five years, one of which saw eight poultry birds kicked and stabbed to death.

Tom Watson, allotment representative for Selby Town Council, said Sunday's attack was "truly awful".

He said: "Whoever did this must be sick. I just don't know what they get out of it.

"You don't expect to find this kind of thing when you come down the garden and think you're going to have a nice half-hour here.

"You think you'll just pick up some veggies for home, and this greets you." Owner of the plot is pensioner Harry Smith, who lives on the Flaxley Road estate. He was unavailable for comment today.

Mr Watson said: "There's no reason why anybody would pick on him. Most of the people who come here are retired. We thought we had put incidents like this behind us."

Allotment holder John Dickinson, 61, of Charles Street, said he did not have a shed on his plot for fear of arson attacks.

Mr Dickinson said: "It's a real shame when something like this happens. I don't have a shed for precisely that reason. We thought things had quietened down."

Selby town councillor Melanie Davis said: "It's very upsetting and annoying.

"It's also very difficult to know what to do, short of having a guard patrolling the allotments 24 hours a day. We just don't have the budget to be able to do that."

In 1999, CCTV cameras were installed in the Flaxley Road area, one of them to cover the vandal-hit allotments.

Coun Davis said the matter would be discussed at the next town council meeting.

Updated: 12:33 Wednesday, July 23, 2003