It is pleasing to report that the Halloween and bonfire night weekends in Bristol appear to have passed off reasonably quietly.

Measures put into place weeks before, like visiting retail outlets that sell fireworks, eggs and flour, and encouraging them to sell certain products only to responsible adults, appear to have paid dividends.

Although things were in place to address any problems during this period, officers who had their shifts changed were mostly able to go about their normal duties, and everyone who wanted a safe and enjoyable evening was allowed to go about having one.

It is however a sad fact that fires do not appear to be restricted to bonfire night and on a regular basis, officers are called to incidents that are termed "deliberate ignitions".

These cases can vary between vehicles being set alight, to bushes, shrubbery or bin fires.

On a regular basis, the police, along with the fire brigade, are called to such situations where some people – and yes I am afraid the statistics indicate that it is young people – feel the need to set fire to things.

The cost implications to the emergency services are enormous, but the effect this can have on local residents is also a serious consideration.

In the past week, allotment holders at Wickham Glen in Fishponds have seen two such incidents, whereby in the early hours of the morning their garden sheds were burned to the ground.

Without wishing to appear to stereotype people, we all know that allotments are mostly tended to by elderly retired people who enjoy the simple things in life like gardening. To arrive at their allotments to find this sort of mindless vandalism is very frightening and stressful.

For the few I have spoken to, it has led to them questioning whether they wish to continue their hobbies.

This is because they simply no longer feel safe in a once friendly environment.

The cost implications are also a factor as many of them are on the minimum state pension and cannot afford to replace such items, let alone get an insurance company to cover them.

Yet the idiots who cause such damage appear to be unperturbed by this.

Surely some of them must have grandparents – and so how would they feel if this happened to one of their relatives?

Allotments by their very nature are hard to secure, and while some have spent vast amounts of money on them to help stop such incidents like this occurring, others are less fortunate.

We are working with the council in an attempt to address this, but we all know that money is tight and that any type of security measure may take a while to be implemented.

So, in the meantime, we will be looking to increase our patrols around these areas, both during the daytime and also into the early hours, in an attempt to prevent or catch the people responsible for causing such misery.