Vandals target Oswestry town green
Monday 7th June 2010, 11:29AM BST.
Fencing has been torn down and obscene messages sprayed on newly laid paving at Oswestry’s new £170,000 town green.
The vandalism attack at the weekend is the second time within a week that the green, which is due to be opened officially on Friday, has been targeted.
During the spring bank holiday weekend a digger was smashed up and hundreds of pounds of damage caused.
In the latest attack fencing put up at the site to keep the public out until it is ready was torn down and damaged.
And rude messages were spray painted on new paving stones.
Shropshire Councillor Martin Bennett said the attack added to his concerns about security at the site.
He said: “There has been ongoing concerns about the site for a while and they were raised at the latest meeting of the Oswestry Local Joint Committee.
“I had already asked last week for a meeting about this and will be taking it up with officers. What annoys me is that this project is £170,000 of Oswestry taxpayers’ money.
“That is not money which is found in a magical pot at the end of a rainbow it is taxpayers’ money.
“This town green is an effort to improve a part of Oswestry which needs to be improved and provide something for the residents. It is disappointing that a small minority of people want to stop that happening.”
At last week’s LJC meeting Councillor Bill Benyon warned the site would be a “magnet for drunken louts”.
The town green is being created on five acres of former railway land in Gobowen Road. National grants have helped put together a scheme to turn the land into a mix of play areas and wildlife areas.
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Whoever did this are totally disrespectful of the hard work their community is trying to improve.
Total scumbags.
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I hope that someone who knows who is doing this report them to the police, as `Observer` says they are total scumbags.
If they are caught, I hope they are made to pay for the damage and even get them to scrub their handy work off.
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When i walked past that digger on saturday evening i thought to myself ‘are they mad leaving that there’, then when i walked past it on sunday morning i was not suprised to see the windows smashed.
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