Cars wrecked by late-night revellers

May 1998

Thousands of pounds worth of damage was inflicted on parked cars after late night revellers went on the rampage through a Bray housing estate last weekend.

One vehicle sustained serious damage after it was broken into, the handbrake released and left to roll downhill at the Seacrest estate, where it crashed into a gate pier.

Four other vehicles were also damaged when body panels were kicked in and wing mirrors broken off by passing vandals in the small hours of Saturday morning last.

The spree is but the latest in a series of similar incidents over recent months which are being blamed by local residents on the fact that their estate is regularly used as a shortcut by people walking home late at night from pubs and clubs in the Seafront area to Vevay Road.

Other recent incidents have included young trees being snapped off at the trunk, a set of gates being stolen and a local house being broken into while residents slept upstairs.

There have also been complaints of open air drinking and drug taking and local people being harassed by youths loitering in the estate.

This litany of vandalism is likely to lead to a revival of pressure by local residents for the erection of a set of gates at the eastern (Seafront) end of the estate which could be locked up at night in a bid to block access by unwanted revellers.

Such a proposal was the subject of a planning application to Bray Urban District council just over a year ago, but was subsequently dropped in the face of objections by residents of neighbouring areas.

A member of the Seacrest Residents Association said this week that a renewed application was now liekly and that they were anxious to highlight the recent spate of vandalism in a bid to draw attention to the plight of local residents in support of their case.

‘We now have a problem with vandalism and thuggery virtually every weekend in the estate because of people walking through here late at night.

‘A gate would only be locked at night, so it would not interfere with people’s movements during the day, while keys could be made available to any local people who wanted one,’ the residents’ association member said.