War memorial vandalised
A KINGSCLIFF war memorial has been vandalised just a week before Anzac Day.
Residents claim youths used scooters like hammers on Monday to knock chunks out of the walls of the memorial at the new $22 million Rowan Robinson Park.
A resident approached the vandals to tell them to stop, but they continued to damage the property.
Tweed Shire councillor Pryce Allsop said he was disgusted by the news.
“Any vandalism is nuiscance behaviour and, if it’s a war memorial, I find it really cowardly,” Cr Allsop said.
“It only takes a couple of low-life scumbags to wreak havoc. You’d think you’ve got a community down there where everyone’s above that, but obviously someone’s not.”
Tweed Shire Council manager of recreation services, Stewart Brawley said the tiles on the cenotaph were damaged by being skated on.
“This is not something many in the community would find acceptable in the lead-up to the opening and Anzac Day next week,” Mr Brawley said.
“Apart from the disrespect, this vandalism is disappointing as it may affect the type of community infrastructure we install across the Tweed in the future.
“This is a flagship park and we tried to be more creative and not let vandalism dictate the design.
“We don’t want to have to go back to the plain vanilla design required to ensure infrastructure is vandal-proof.”
Some seats in the park were also damaged and will have to be removed and replaced.
“We just don’t have the money to continually repair things and ratepayers would expect their rates to spent more productively,” Mr Brawley said.
Cr Allsop visited the park a couple of weeks ago and said a builder insisted on installing anti-skating measures, which the vandals had attempted to remove.
“I was there not long ago and a person particularly went out of their way to say ‘you need to put in these lumps to stop the skaters riding them’,” Cr Allsop said.
Anyone with information regarding vandalism at Rowan Robinson Park is asked to call Tweed Heads Police on (07) 5506 9499.
The park is set to have its official opening this Saturday.