Sports club targeted by vandals for third time

Rob Preece said the nets had already been replaced twice

A sports club has said vandals have ripped out football nets and damaged astro-turf outside their club for the third time in a year.

Ross Preece, head coach at Severn Gymnastics and Trampoline Club, said nets on both sides had been torn down with parts of the pitch pulled up and unusable.

He estimated the cost of repairs to be about £5,000, which was money the not-for-profit club did not have.

"We've already had to replace the nets twice in the last 12 months because of this and yes, it just gets a bit heartbreaking to be honest," he said.

"It looks like a few of the youths have had their bikes on here and wheel spinning on their wheels to burn big holes into the pitch.

"We've had to cancel all of the bookings from all of the young people up to the adults as well so that's a big hindrance on everybody really associated with the pitch."

The artificial turf has also been damaged, the club said

Mr Preece said that as a non-profit business, "we don't have that excess money to just splash out on the repairs."

The pitch is surrounded by a fence about 8ft (2.4m), but the vandals have still managed to climb over it, he said.

"We've done what we can with anti-vandal paint but they're still managing to get over and they're using the bins to get over but we need the bins for litter."

He said he was not sure what solution there could be apart from getting further funding to extend the height of the fencing.

"We come down and all the nets have been ripped off and you just think well, why?

"Why should we keep funding for them to just keep damaging things?"