The people of Claremorris are up in arms about damage that has been caused to the local playground at Lower James Street, Rooskeybeg and the local council engineer has condemned the act.
Some €5,000 worth of damage was done to the community facility by a group of vandals a couple of weeks ago, causing much distress for the local authority which developed the facility and families who use it on a regular basis.
District Engineer Mr Tom Feerick told the Mayo Advertiser: “This was a deliberate act of vandalism carried out by either teenagers or adults. Why they have to go and destroy this facility which is loved by the children defies logic.” As well as attacking the equipment, thugs also sprayed grafitti at the playground.
Local Independent councillor Richard Finn has described the attack as despicable. “The mindless thugs who perpetuated this attack on public property must be brought to justice,” he said. “This is a blatant act against the young children of the area and their parents who had waited for such a fine facility in the town for many years.
“Mayo County Council were doing a good job in the upkeep of the playground,” he continued. “Now it has come to the stage where mindless yobs, for want of a better word, have caused this amount of damage to the facility at the expense of Mayo County Council and the hundreds of children who use the playground each week.”
Cllr Finn appealed for help from the public in bringing the culprits to justice. However he did state that Mayo County Council is faced with a €5,000 bill for repairs.
