A note from your clerk – littering and vandalism

You may have seen on Wickhambrook Community pages reports of glass waste left in the skate park, under the cable runway and on the Recreation Ground following a gathering on Friday night.  This is not the first time this has happened – at the beginning of April broken glass was also found in the Skate park (on this occasion a child cut their hand picking some up), and over Easter, the new bench at the eastern end of Recreation Ground and Six Acres was completely destroyed.

Thanks go out to Cllrs Kevin Grimes, Mel Karunaratne and Mike Lavelle, for clearing up the glass on both occasions, and to Cllr Lavelle for putting the bench back together (a replacement bench would have cost in the region of over £300).  I have reported Friday night’s incident to the Community Policing Team.

I’m not sure if you appreciate the time and dedication our councillors put in to making Wickhambrook a safe and pleasant place to live, or that they are volunteers, donating their skills, experience and energy!

Please, if you know any of the participants of the gathering on Friday night, or were involved yourselves, do have a conversation or think about the impact these actions have had on the wider community – It took our councillors over five hours between them to clear the glass on Saturday morning – children could have sustained cuts had they fallen or tripped in the skate park had the glass not been cleared, and dogs being walked across the Recreation Ground could have sustained serious cuts to their pads, needing veterinary treatment.

We have volunteer mornings once a month on the first Wednesday to carry out maintenance to our open spaces, the cemetery and play areas – this helps the parish keep costs down – please do contact me if you would like to join, or if you would like to find out more about becoming a councillor – we currently have three vacancies.