"It’s hard to understand the mentality of these people"

Newbury Town Council is asking residents to help to save children’s playgrounds from vandals.

It says vandals keep damaging the equipment or they deface with graffiti, often leaving it in a dangerous condition.

The damage is eating into the council’s budget so much it could be out of cash to fix the playgrounds by September.

The town council is calling on residents to be vigilant and where they see people damaging or graffitiing play equipment to report it to the council or the police.

“This selfish vandalism is really frustrating and dangerous,” said Sarah Slack (Lib Dem, Wash Common), who chairs the council’s community services committee. "Some people are setting out to deliberately endanger children by removing nuts, bolts or screws.

“They actually go out with the tools needed to do this damage to the play equipment so loved by children. We are so disappointed. This is malicious behaviour. It’s hard to understand the mentality of these people.”

She continued, “These attacks could potentially cost the council and the taxpayers of Newbury tens of thousands of pounds.

"The more we spend on playground repairs, the less we have to spend elsewhere.

"We are spending the allocated budget for our playgrounds on repairs and maintenance twice as fast as the budget allows.

"At this rate the entire budget for the year will be spent by September.

“This activity could result in damaged equipment being removed and playgrounds being closed, which would be such a shame for our children.

"Our playgrounds are located all over Newbury and are loved and valued by the community.”

People are asked to contact Newbury Town Council by calling (01635) 35486, messaging on social media, emailing towncouncil@newbury.gov.uk or by reporting to the police on 101.