Police to patrol Oswestry town green to stop vandalism
Thursday 29th July 2010, 10:22AM BST.
The five-acre green was opened on Friday but residents say it has already fallen victim to litter louts and people ripping up turf and damaging fencing.
Now police and community support officers have said they will patrol the £170,000 green regularly and a mobile CCTV camera may also be set up to try to catch the culprits.
Police community support Officer Sheila Anderton said: “It is so disappointing and frustrating that already a minority are spoiling the area, just off the Gobowen Road.
“The litter that was strewn around yesterday was just dreadful. I have asked Shropshire Council to install litter bins but until then I would plead with people to take their rubbish home.”
She said there had been instances of turf being pulled up and fencing being vandalised.
“There will be police and community support officers patrolling the green during the school holidays,” she said.
Inspector Jim Stafford, from Oswestry police, has already said he is looking into whether a mobile CCTV camera can be set up in the area.
Earlier this year Shropshire Councillor Bill Benyon warned that the green would be a “magnet for drunken louts”.
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Did the design take into account the risk of vandalism and antisocial behaviour. Looks very attractive but when the trees and bushes grow won’t that make the problems worse. Hope things settle down. Oswestry residents shouldn’t be left to pick up the additional bills for repairs, extra maintenance and security!
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it beats me why there are the brain-dead
who delight in spoiling everything £170,000
is a lot of money if it were me–there would be nothing for the community unless they paid for and policed it themselves even the parks would go why should the taxpayer everywere have to continually provide for mindless criminal damage to public property
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We can not let the morons win. People need green space and trees and to see birds and animals. Nature’s sights and sounds enrich our lives even when we are not conscious of it. Sometimes I think a minority likes to harp on about the few who are destructive and fail to see the enjoyment so many other people derive from green spaces in towns.
Perhaps too many artifical costly man made structures have been installed on the Green, when the Green should have been reinstated with trees. This would have been less costly and grass and wild plants and self seeded trees are less easy tragets for vandals.
I still think that the Authorities have made their best efforts to give Oswestry a great public asset, and deserve our respect and thanks for that. Let’s all look after Nature and our green spaces as Nature and the natural world has a lot to offer and to teach to people of all ages.
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