Thatcham Town Council to tackle Mount Road vandalism

Over the past several months, the Thatcham Neighbourhood Wardens have been called to several incidents of vandalism and destruction including offensive graffiti on fence panels in the alleyway between Cowslip Crescent and Thatcham Park Primary School in Park Avenue.
There has also been graffiti on the lamp posts along the alleyway as well as a large amount of dog fouling in the alleyway.
The wardens have also cleaned up offensive graffiti on the zebra crossing at Harts Hill Road with the clean-up forcing the road to be closed.
Offensive graffiti had also been found on a garage door in the Bluecoats area.
On a recent routine inspection, the neighbourhood wardens found that play equipment at the Mount Road play area had been damaged which has started happening on a regular basis and now the park is without several pieces of equipment.
The issues were discussed by members of Thatcham Town Council's recreation and amenities committee on Monday (11) evening and town and district councillor, Sheila Ellison (Con, Thatcham North) said that measures such as padlocking the park at night had been tried but she added: "It's still causing trouble."
In suggesting starting up a working party to attempt to tackle the issue, town councillor Owen Jeffery (Lib Dem, Thatcham South and Crookham) said that it was the hope of Zoe Cadden [who set up the park] that it would be something that the local youths would look after.
He said: "This committee has got to go back to basics and work out what we can do and what the costs would be.
"It cannot go on like this; it will go back to becoming a place of nasty behaviour.
"This had the support of the community and it was a community thing.
"What's going on is unacceptable."
Members of the committee agreed to set up a working party to establish what options were available.
For more Thatcham News, see tomorrow's Newbury Weekly News.