A town councillor is offering £500 reward to identify culprits responsible for a spate of vandalism and arson.
Cllr Roy Gerstner said: “I am offering the reward – my own money - for the identification and prosecution of those responsible.
“It is becoming almost endemic anti-social and vandalism within our town.”
Cllr Gerstner said the latest outbreak of vandalism in Whittlesey was on Thursday June – sometime after 7.30pm.
“Our relatively new and expensive picnic benches have been set alight and completely destroyed,” he said.
“The picnic benches were installed last year and have been subject to minor vandalism and graffiti, but this latest event is of much greater concern”.
The benches were provided after volunteers from Whittlesey Street Pride and the town council launched plans to fund the benches.
After volunteers from Whittlesey Street Pride and the town council launched plans to replace the benches last year, a £6,075 grant was received through the Glassmoor Bank Wind Turbine Fund through Fenland District Council.
A £5,000 grant from WTC to install the benches was also provided, while a CCTV camera and concrete bases were installed.
Cllr Gerstner said beside the Manor picnic benches, there have been other instances of fire damage.
He cites damage to trees within St Mary’s church yard “again occurring within the last couple of days.
“And there has been damage to trees to the field at Yarwells Headlands. designated for the Platinum Wood later this year.
“Yesterday I found that one of the more mature plantings had its bark stripped.”
The town councillor added: “The recently newly installed play equipment at Burdett Grove I also understand has been hit.
“And the Station Road play park also suffered within weeks of new equipment being installed.”
He said these were just some examples of incidents that had been brought to his attention.
The St Mary’s Ward South councillor hopes the offer of a £500 reward will prompt someone to report the culprits.
You can contact Cllr Gerstner here
http://roygerstner.co.uk/
It was Cllr Gerstner who first applied for funding to replace and install the eight recycled plastic benches at the Manor Leisure Centre after they were worn and vandalised.
Now he says “We are seriously considering removing all the picnic benches because of the ongoing vandalism.”
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