A COMMUNITY payback allotment scheme is back up and running after an attack by vandals left the site in a mess.

The Town Farm allotment, in Middlesbrough, is being used to teach offenders horticultural skills while raising money for Teesside Hospice.

The fruit, vegetables, flowers and plants grown on the site, run by Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust, are sold to the public through 14 shops operated by the hospice.

A relative of a patient at the hospice donated a greenhouse to the project but the vandalism attack led to a delay getting it erected and seeds sown.

But the offenders have overcome the attack and are back on track to raise even more money for the charity after already selling £6,000 worth of goods since September.