A charity clothes bin – and it’s donated contents – has been destroyed in a suspected arson attack in Ryde this evening (Tuesday).
Firefighters from Ryde are currently on scene at Salters Road in Haylands, where a clothing collection point located in the car park of The Phoenix Centre has been set on fire.
The incident began shortly before 17:25.
Firefighters donned in breathing apparatus have used spreaders to force open the metal bin in order to tackle the blaze inside using a hose reel jet.
A strong smell of burning plastic can be smelt by local residents, who say a group of kids were seen throwing fire crackers and a some kind of substance on the floor in the area earlier this afternoon.
Police have been informed of the incident, which is being treated as suspicious at this time.
The mindless act of vandalism will have a knock on effect for the receiving charity as dozens of bags of donated goods – which have a recyclable value – have been destroyed.
The money raised from the clothing kindly donated by people in the Haylands area is used to buy equipment for the Phoenix Project.
A local resident has this evening said:
“This makes me sick to my stomach. I hope whoever did this gets to read this message. You have stolen money from the most vulnerable people in society. You disgust me”.
We seem to have a lot of mindless scum who believe , i was going to say “think” but they don’t have a functioning brain, that mindless vandalism is clever.
What the hell is going on with all these arson attacks I’ve never known so many happening. The island really isn’t the same anymore . Makes me so sad
Thats what happens when the country becomes too soft on these people. The courts and sentencing are an absolute joke.
Such a shame, I took a bag of clothes directly to the Haylands farm shop last week, (opposite Iceland in Ryde). they are a local charity and does good work. They aren’t a big corporate charity so please give your things to them folks.
Rod the clothing bin belongs to a charity next door the phoenix project not Haylands Farm
My apologies, both do good things for local people.
We are surrounded by morons.
I saw some scum bag kids throwing stones at each other hitting peoples car swearing and being anti sociable it looked like older boys with younger girls in the area just after six o’clock
We’re are the police when we need them?
Where are the parents? Where are the parental responsibilitys? Down the drain with the millions in taxpayers funding these types receive.
Very possible someone who does not like the bins being there. Not always kids.
Sad, and people say we would get low lifes etc if we had a tunnel … they are already here.. I often wonder if some of these so called idiots have parents.. , or if the parent (s) cares what they do..
Too true …back in the day locals were against a fixed link because of low life scum and drug users being drawn to our island ….too late now ….there all here know thanks to our council and associated charities
The dumb asses who think this is funny, if caught, be made to go back and clean up the mess. I hope one day they need help and have to rely on donations from kind hearted people.
Wake up. They won’t be caught, and if they were, they would NEVER be made to clean up the mess. Health and safety would insit it too dangerous from inhaling or touching contaminated burnt, cancer giving debris of mixed materials.
By the time you had found a qualified couple of people to supervise, by the time you had equiped the low life with FULL protection all brand new, to be used only once, it is cheaper to do as they did, call in proffessionals, and allow all to moan.
Life has changed, and is NEVER going back to nicer times. Sadly you will have to accept this now.
I understand things have changed, of course I do. Nanny state we live in now. But this why the little sh*TS do what they do because they know there will be no consequences. Dumb ass adults, drug driving, drink driving, all Molly coddled too much.
Pointless vandalism.
However, the level of ‘scum’ (as some enlightened among us so bravely put it) and ‘druggies’ is no worse than most of the rest of the UK.
IOW internet commentors are just more vocal and insular about it.
I think the point being made is that we rarely had these problems on the Island even when they were prevalent on the mainland. But now incidents like this are an almost daily occurrence here and, you’re right, we are not much different these days from the mainland. If you accept that things have changed, and it’s difficult not to, then you should ask why. The fairly obvious answer is that the population here has been swelled by people being sent here by other Councils. So, why are other Councils off-loading them and why are we accepting them when they bring so many problems?
I’m not aware of any evidence that the IOW is being used by other county councils as a dumping ground for their own citizens.
It may be that individuals in council properties on the mainland are asking for / organising transfers to IOW council properties, I don’t know (though I’d doubt it as I believe there’s a shortage on the island).
I’m not convinced things are worse now than they were when we were kids. What I expect is we are older so less tolerant and more likely to criticise.
Either way, starting fires is stoopid.
Kids were seen throwing crackers etc in the area. The fault lays with the parents, at at 17.25 just the right time for children to be out uncontrolled.