Anti-social behaviour in Chudleigh
Over the fourteen years I have been Town Clerk there has always been a certain level of vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the town, I guess that’s true of everywhere, but never at the level it has been this year. The epicentre for this behaviour has been at Millstream Meadow where, over the last few weeks, two picnic benches have been reduced to matchwood, others have been torn out of the ground, the youth shelter is graffitied on a daily basis and now the graffiti has spread to the skatepark surface itself. Annoyingly, the anti-social behaviour has spread outwards from Millstream Meadow. The noticeboard at Culver Green was vandalised, the noticeboard at Millstream has been graffitied on a regular basis, as has the bus shelter at Town Mills. That has been vandalised and graffitied on a near weekly basis. Residents are also being impacted with one with a large block boundary wall painted white having it covered in graffiti. It will not be cheap for him to have it removed. It is not cheap for the Council either. I estimate that I will have spent circa £3,000 to replace damaged equipment. To that can be added the staff time and materials needed to clean this mess up.
Some will argue that graffiti is no big deal. However, some of it has been intensely personal and aimed at named individuals. That is simply not acceptable. It seems that our gang of miscreants label themselves the “MP13 gang”. I have absolutely no doubt that there will be several members of the community who know who they are. I know we live in a society where the mantra of “you don’t grass people up” holds sway with many (a concept I completely fail to understand) but surely the time has come to identify these individuals to the police.
John Carlton
Town Clerk
01626 853140
clerk@chudleigh-tc.gov.uk