Volunteers heartbroken as 80 fruit trees stolen

More than 100 fruit trees were planted at the Millpool Community Orchard

Volunteers from West Bromwich have said they are devastated after nearly all the trees planted for a community orchard were stolen.

More than 100 fruit trees were planted in January as part of a wider scheme by Hateley Cross Big Local community project to enhance the environment, 80 of which have now been stolen.

Millpool Community Orchard has spent a total of £1m of lottery cash on five local projects to improve the area.

Edna Dunn said: “I’m absolutely devastated, not just for me but for the community.

“This is what the community wanted.”

She added: “We’ve been working [for] eight years to get this place to what the community want.”

Edna Dunn and Alex Lipton said their group had worked on the scheme for eight years

Alex Lipton said the group wanted to create a space local people could visit and enjoy.

“We’ve had volunteers on this site, helping to nurture the trees and we were hoping that next year they would begin to fruit and local people could come and pick the fruit and use it for themselves,” she said.

“We were so looking forward to next year to see what this would create.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.