Our big polytunnel at Redlynch Community Patch was irrepairably damaged by Storm Bert on the 24th November. The skin has been shredded, many of the metal hoops have been bent from the force of the winds, and most of the timber framing has been broken.

This is disastrous for us, as we had only just finished putting this tunnel up in March this year with the help of our amazing volunteers. This tunnel was where we grew some of our best crops, including our large array of heritage tomatoes of which we were producing up to 50kg each week during the height of the season. All the money that we make through the sale of some of these highly valued crops goes straight back into the project, so without a tunnel to grow these we are very limited in how much work we can do for our community.

A new polytunnel this size would cost around £6000, without taking into account professional construction. We can't yet fully know the damage the storm has done without taking it all apart, but from our first inspection it looks as if almost half of the metal hoops have been bent and many of the crop bars too, the whole skin is shredded, and most of the timber framing has been damaged. In line with our ethos of being as sustainable as possible, we will be looking into reusing as much as we possibly can from the original polytunnel, but without knowing how much of it is damaged beyond repair we can't get a full idea of how much it'll cost to re-build.

We estimate that, including professional construction, we will be looking at spending around £6000 to get back to where we were before the storm. This could cost more, it could cost less, but we are aiming to raise this much just so we are able to get back on our feet in time for the growing season. Any additional funds raised that we do not spend will go towards future-proofing the tunnel, including buying hedgeplants to plant alongside the polytunnel to act as a windbreak.

We are a small community growing project with no spare funds to spend on damage like this. We fully rely on the support from our community to keep going, so we are reaching out to all our wonderful neighbours, volunteers, customers, and supporters to ask for help. We massively appreciate anything you can give at this time - we understand it's a tricky time to be spending money, but together we hope we can raise enough to replace the tunnel.