Shropshire Star

Sweet outcome for Ludlow shop after yob attack

It has been a sweet outcome for one shopkeeper after yobs smashed a charity noticeboard outside his town centre shop.

Published

Staff at Sweet News in Ludlow have now fixed the glass on a noticeboard in aid of West Midlands Air Ambulance after being inundated with calls from big-hearted well-wishers who heard about the vandalism at the shop in Corve Street – from as far away as the other side of the world.

Ian Hughes, who runs the shop, said he did not know what to do after the noticeboard that hangs on the wall at the side of the building, on the path that runs to Ludlow Museum Resource Centre, was shattered, leaving him with a £120 bill to replace the glass, which he could not afford.

But one local glazier has now replaced the glass free of charge after hearing about Mr Hughes' plight, and he had plenty of other offers, he said after his story appeared in the Shropshire Star.

He said: "After the piece appeared in the paper we had a lot of calls from people offering to give some money to help get it fixed.

"One of them was from as far afield as New Zealand – somebody had seen it on the Shropshire Star website and said they wanted to help, so we're very grateful."

In the end, he said, no money needed to change hands.

"A regular customer of ours talked to her brother who makes windows for rally cars, and he asked us to give him the details."

The man was Michael Davies of Templar Performance Plastics, based at Henly Hill Farm, Cleestanton, near Ludlow, who manufactures polycarbonate window kits for the motorsport industry.

"He literally phoned us up and said 'give me the measurements and I'll get it done free of charge'," Mr Hughes said.

The smash happened overnight between the afternoon of Sunday, February 28 and the following morning.

People pay a small fee to advertise on the noticeboard each week and the money goes to West Midlands Air Ambulance.

Mr Hughes has been running the scheme for almost two years since taking over the shop, he said. Before that the board was used by Severn Hospice for the same purpose.

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