This year Ventnor Town Council (VTC) has been facing an uphill battle against constant and reckless vandalism throughout the town.
This not only impacts the services provided by Ventnor Town Council but eats into valuable resources, not only financially but also many hours of labour for their workforce.
It causes the closures of some areas and facilities for periods of time whilst the staff team undertakes repairs to ensure the safety of the residents and visitors.
Moreover, it is clearly not a good advert for the town – Ventnor is a special place with an unrivalled community spirit, a vast history of being a unique place to live and visit. However, the level of vandalism and anti-social behaviour currently is becoming ‘unbearable’ and therefore increasingly a problem throughout the town, it is claimed.
To highlight the problem and to show what they are up against at VTC, they have issued a vandalism hit list from this year up to June and included the general costs of repairs and replacement parts to the Council. The hope is that this will help persuade people to assist in stamping out this kind of behaviour in the town.
VTC is asking for your ideas and thoughts on how they can try and stop this damage being done to the town.
There is CCTV installed at the new toilets in the Central Car Park, but do they need more at other sites in the town? Dispersal orders? Alcohol Free zones? School visits? What else can they do? Let them know. You can contact Nigel Slater-Bishop directly at the Council at any time, either by emailing [email protected] or by phone on 01983 857856.
Below is a list of vandalism costs and incidents in 2023 up until June:
Costs:
• Financial Costs (accumulated) £3850 + Labour costs
• Labour Costs (Time accumulated) 60 hours
• Periods of closure (Time accumulated) 7 Days +
• Replacement of 14 cassette Toilet roll holders (accumulated)
• Replacement of over 20 lighting fixtures
• Toilet seat repairs, replacement 10+
• Vehicle and bike damage to Ventnor Park lawns (contractor costs)
Incidents:
Spring Hill Gardens:
• Further damage to the fountain.
• Damage to the shrubs/flowers
• Damage to the benches.
• Damage to property.
• Anti-Social behaviour, Drunken behaviour
Central Car Park Toilets (New Block):
• Internal damage on numerous occasions
• Fire at rear of toilets.
• Graffiti on inside of accessible toilets and other toilets.
• Internal spoiling of toilets.
• Baby changing unit damaged
• Outside area damaged.
• Anti-Social behaviour, drug taking and drunkenness
Sea Front Toilets-Esplanade:
• Internal lighting destroyed.
• Door locks destroyed.
• Cassette Toilet roll holders destroyed, ripped of the wall.
• Toilets broken; Toilets seats broken
• Malicious Sink blockage
• Dirty excrement smeared over walls
• Graffiti damage on every wall inside
• Brand new energy efficient lighting destroyed with Graffiti
• Water supply damaged
• Outside areas damaged.
• Damage to Paddling Pool
• Broken Glass maliciously placed in Paddling pool
• Basketball hoop destroyed within days of installation, on 2 occasions
• Anti-Social Behaviour
• Abusive behaviour to members of the cleaning team
Ventnor Park Toilets, Ventnor Park:
• Internal damage
• Door locks broken
• Doors broken off
• Cassette toilet roll holders ripped from the wall.
• Sink damage
• Malicious Sink blockage
• Dirty excrement smeared over walls
• Toilet damage
• Fires
• Graffiti
• Bench damage, Benches dragged away from placement
• Damage to trees and plants
• Lawn Damaged by vehicles.
• Contractors, Gardeners building damaged
• Anti-Social Behaviour
Ventnor Beach:
- Broken Glass
- Damage to Business property
- Damage to VTC Safety Hut, abusive behaviour towards VTC staff and safety team
- Anti-Social Behaviour
Ventnor Town and Green Spaces:
• Graffiti
• Memorial Benches damaged, destroyed
• Community garden damage
• Property damage
• Signs damage
• Fence damage
• Tree damage
• Anti-social behaviour
How about catching these scum then the courts ordering compensation to cover all costs incurred and if the filth cannot pay then hammer their parents and if necessary seize assets.
Stop PAYING people to breed. I would wager that in almost every case it will be the children bought up on tax credits, with free or heavily subsidised rent and council tax that cause the most damage.
Their parent, rarely parents, claim hundreds a week from us, via the Gov and universal credit, for emptying their womb, oft with ‘father’ said to be ‘unknow’ so they can milk even more from the state as claiming to be single parents, when they rarely sleep alone.
The children are only wanted to gain an easy life of free rent, c.tax and benefits totalling hundreds for the parent to lazy around, drugged up, drunk, or just slobing around.
They dont CARE what their clones do, as long as they are kept by the state. Stop the payments
I hate to break it to you but alot of working class have children too
What are you on?I have a drug dependency problem and have to live on incapacity benefits.In total with housing benefit and child benefit I only get£450 a week hardly enough to live on with the price of cigarettes sky tv mobile phone contracts and price of drinks at the pub.No wonder I have no idea what my kids are up to.
Our heart bleeds for you mate .
You would get on a lot better if you put ‘rent’ somewhere on your list of priorities
Unfortunately you are right ,it should not be like his but it is .
make the yobs work and make sure they get out of bed to do so .
and make it proper work that gets your hands dirty .
Exactly, when they lose their Nike trainers, Hoody,iPhone or playstation etc they might think. If not evict and send off to empty housing on mainland. If you keep biting hand that feeds you, you should not be given hand outs. It’s only going to be same mindless scum. Ventnor as other Island towns had CCTV. Look at Newport now, shoplifting, accidents, assaults and this w/end a disposable order. Where are Ventnors PCSOs?.
Who do you contact if you see someone vandalising something? 101 don’t answer and I don’t think 999 would class it as an emergency would they? Since the new toilets have been there we’ve seen a lot more people hanging around late at night (not all youngsters) it’s ideal… they now have the convenience of a park to sit in, Tesco’s & loo’s, I think it was obvious this was going to happen, wasn’t it?
Lies! It’s all youngsters
anther island slum like the rest of the island
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Castrate all the poors, society will be saved
This is what happens when councils build blocks of flats and house conversions to house even more people but I don’t suppose they thought of this when these very very not so powerful people who think they know better let this happen.
Who’s to blame here??
Always said the best thing about Ventnor is the road out of there.
How about engaging with youngster’s? We used to have youth club’s, school disco’s, after school club’s. None of these thing’s anymore. How about police on the beat?
We don’t want those lefty things on my island
Engaging with them using a baseball bat would be optimal.
Do you really think that the youngsters going around causing vandalism are the same ones who would go to an after school club or a school disco?
But, good luck if you want to give it a go!
Yet again the scum ruining it for the rest of us, but of course the culprits (scroungers and their offspring) don’t have to worry about any council tax rises, because they’re not paying any to begin with.
Some do, need to pay a %
Has anybody thought of reopening the youth clubs and showing the ‘ scum’ that there is another way to live and that us oldies do worry about what makes them feel there’s no place for them in society? How will they ever improve their lives when the actions of one vandal attract language like this
There’s some sad, lonely, nasty old men follow Island echo comments… Leave ’em to stew in their cess pits of gloom…
judging by some of your comments zoe, you are a nasty, old woman.
I don’t think these scumbags feel there is no place in society for them, but instead they are just idiots trying to act like big men because they know they can get away with it. The lack of police presence on the streets means that there is no deterrent. I saw a policeman walking in the street the other day and was actually shocked because it happens so rarely. Then not shocked to see he was getting some chips. Maybe we can coax them to patrol the streets of Ventnor by offering free chips and pizzas.
The last time I remember seeing a policeman on foot on the Island was in lockdown when he suddenly appeared from behind a bush and told me I wasn’t allowed to stop when out for a walk even. I think he must just waiting to pounce on some unsuspecting passer by, very weird!
Tory cuts closed the youth clubs and removed over half of the police. Hope you enjoyed your tax cuts, it’s all coming home. Time to sleep in the bed you made.
This makes for such grim reading. What is wrong with the so called human beings who get some sort of weird thrill from causing all this damage. I wish someone had the balls to identify all these wasters and they be made to pay for all the damage they are causing. They don’t deserve to live in a civilised society.
They are wrecking their own community. If they had to live in Ukraine, they might start to understand how lucky they are living on this beautiful island. Parents, sort out your kids, NOW.
Stiff sentences and publicly naming these idiots has got to be the answer it’s the courts that are at fault there is no deterrent and the yobs just laugh and do it all over again .
it’s time to toughen up
Because we are now jailing a huge percentage of the third worlds arrivals and offspring in our prisons then now NEVER again can meaningful sentences be given to all but the very worst criminals.
So courts and Police can do nothing and the lesser criminals know it, hence will get ever worse each year.
This is the good times.
Wait until we too are enriched. A broken wc will be nothing.