Guernsey charity Grow is appealing to the public after discovering that around £700 worth of plants and gardening materials appear to have been taken from its site over the weekend without payment.
The missing items include two hanging baskets, Hebes, Campanula, Primroses, Heathers and other plants, along with woodchip and compost.
Grow operates an honesty-based system in its plant sales area, allowing customers to purchase items and pay using an honesty box or SumUp machine. The charity hopes to maintain the arrangement, which relies on the goodwill and trust of the local community.
The charity has CCTV on site and plans to review footage to establish what happened over the weekend.
Anyone who may have taken plants or materials without paying is being encouraged to put matters right by making payment through the honesty box, a painted milk churn, or the SumUp facility on site.
Grow has also thanked its loyal customers for their continued support. Money raised through plant sales helps fund the charity’s work supporting adults with learning disabilities and learning difficulties to develop skills, confidence and opportunities for the future.
General Manager Mandy Mackelworth said: “We are extremely disappointed by what has happened. Every plant we sell represents time, care and hard work by our Crew, who take great pride in growing and looking after the stock. As a charity, we work hard to make every penny count, and a loss of this value is particularly upsetting.
“We have always wanted to operate on a basis of trust and make it easy for people to support us by purchasing our plants. We would very much like to continue doing that, but we need people to respect the system and recognise that taking items without paying has a direct impact on our work.”
