Children’s £800 chicken house stolen from school (From Evesham Journal)

Children’s £800 chicken house stolen from school

1:00pm Sunday 5th February 2012 in News

Children’s £800 chicken house stolen from school

THIEVES have left children at a village primary school distraught after stealing their new chicken coop.

The coop, worth about £800, was taken from St Barnabas First and Middle School, in Drakes Broughton, between 4pm on Monday and 7.50am the following morning.

The school’s eco committee had raised the funds for the coop from grants and were planning to house about 10 chickens in it as part of their sustainability project.

Pupils have been working for the last two years on the project which includes reducing waste, recycling and growing their own vegetables.

Headteacher Paul Kilgallon said that the theft had left the children very upset.

“They have watched the fence go up all week. It was due to be finished on Tuesday. There are lots of unhappy children. They’re outraged that someone would think about taking it.

“We were expecting the chickens in the next two weeks. This was the next step in the project. The pupils wanted to use the waste products from the chickens for compost and the eggs in the school kitchens.

“Now we will have to fund-raise again to make up the excess from the insurance.”

The new three-metre long coop was an ‘Eglu’ Cube made of plastic and wire and had a wire mesh run attached to it.

It had been tucked away in the corner of the school grounds and could not be seen from the outside.

Police spokesman Toby Shergold said: “If anybody saw any suspicious activity outside the school at the relevant time they should contact West Mercia