Play park hopes fade after vandalism

10:35am Thursday 12th June 2008

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HEARTLESS vandals may have cost a village new play equipment after an attack on their pavilion.

Over the weekend, the door to Kington Langley cricket pavilion was kicked down and a fire extinguisher sprayed all over the inside of the building.

Now money raised through a recent dance will have to be used to replace the door and a hasty clean-up operation has been in operation this week.

The building, which is looked after by the Kington Langley Playing Fields Association, is used by villagers and hosts sporting fixtures.

However, replacing the door will now mean that money saved towards a new rubber surface for the play park and swings. will have to be used for repairs.

Warren Burgess, who is a member of the committee, said: "The door had been broken down before, we had only just replaced it and now it has been done again."

Mr Burgess who has lived in the village for the past four years said the committee relied on fundraising events to get by, so the vandalism was a major setback.

He said: "I don't have the figures, but we had raised money through a ceilidh dance that was going to be used for new swings.

"We were going to rejuvenate the whole playing area.

"We were in the process of trying to raise more money.

"In the past we have had kids climbing on the roof and grafitting the place too.

"We don't know how much a new door will cost, but it's obviously something we need to do.

"I think we will be looking into more security measures now too.

"We don't have anything like CCTV and no one has ever caught the vandals in the act."

Mr Burgess said they are due to host a football and cricket match on Sunday.

John Foster, who has been a committee member for the past five years, said police had been examining the scene as there had been footprints left in the powder of the fire extinguisher.

He said: "Something like this undoes a lot of good, the money we had raised will now have to go towards the damage done."

He said if the committee were to replace the door with a similar one it would probably cost them around £240, but purchasing a steel door at a cost of £600 might mean a similar incident can be avoided.