Residents have rallied together to blast ‘disgusting’ vandalism that has seen a popular footpath - used daily by schoolchildren - branded an eyesore and a danger.
Broken fencing along the walkaway in Thorne Farm Way has seen concerns raised for the safety of pedestirans.
The path is used by pupils form The King’s School every day. Residents say they have heard the damage being inflicted late at night.
The vandalised fencing - ‘with nails sticking out’ - now sits at the bottom of a bank aside the pathway.
County councillor Claire Wright said this week that she could fund repairs from her locality budget, but this could mean ‘nice’ community projects miss out on cash. She told the town council on Monday: “I just feel that the whole place needs to be blitzed - the graffiti needs to come off; the litter needs to be picked up regularly. By hook or by crook it needs to be done, and, of course, then the issue is how do we prevent those fence panels getting broken off in future. It just seems to be this ongoing problem.
“I would be absolutely gutted if that happens again after I paid for it. Now, the [county] council has so little money, I want to spend it [her locality budget] on really nice community projects that help people.
“I don’t really want to be repairing a fence, but I don’t think there is any other option, because otherwise it is going to take another year or more. It’s so frustrating that this keeps happening.”
Resident Helen Atkinson had written to the town council to call for stronger panels to be installed as part of a solution to the vandalism.
She said: “I would say 30 to 40 per cent of the fences have been knocked down. It looks totally disgusting.”
She added the late former Citizen of the Year Barry Fearn, who died in November, used to voluntarily repair the fences – only for the panels to be vandalised or kicked down soon after.
Resident Margaret Tampkins said replacing the wooden panels ‘like for like’ would see the problem happen over and over again. She added: “Even though people hear it [vandalism] happening late at night, they are not going to apprehend people at that stage.”
PCSO Maria Clapp added: “There is a very steep bank on one side with the damaged fencing at the bottom with nails sticking out.
“If somebody fell down this bank, they would not only be injured, but find it very difficult to climb back up. Also, there is no lighting in this area, which could cause a problem when dark and children messing around. The area also looks unsightly and uncared for.”
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