‘Mindless destruction’

Bus shelter vandalism costs council £20,000

MORE than £20,000 was spent by Dundee City Council to repair vandalised bus shelters around the city in the past 12 months.

In information obtained by the Tele, it was revealed a total of £20,172 was spent in 2017 replacing glass and polycarbonate panels throughout Dundee.

The most expensive replacements were to the Cox Street Terminus shelter in Downfield. All of the shelter’s glass panels had to be repaired costing a total of £1,384 in October.

Repairs to a bus shelter on Drumgeith Road at Drumgeith Park in Linlathen also cost the council £925.44 in April, with all 10 of the shelters panels being replaced.

And a bus shelter on Forfar Road at Claverhouse Road was fixed four times over the space of eight months. The regular visits cost the council £1,498.10 in total to fix both upper and lower bay glass panels, with one visit costing nearly £900.

The only month where there were no reports of vandalised bus shelters was May and there was only one report of vandalism in June.

However, in February alone, 34 repairs were carried out costing £5,321.

January also had a high rate of repairs, with a total of 23 in the month, costing Dundee City Council more than £4,000.

Ardler local John Bisset, 68, was left outraged after bus shelters at Ardler Library were targeted a number of times.

He said: “I can’t believe how much has been spent to repair the havoc caused by these vandals.

“Bus shelters are a necessity for the community and it is incredibly sad that people chose to destroy them.”

Councillor Lynne Short, city development convener, said: “I utterly condemn the vandals who carry out this mindless destruction across our communities.

“The vandalism causes real inconvenience for people.

“We work closely with Police Scotland to try to prevent this damage and to keep our communities safe.”

A bus shelter in Ardler vandalised by paint bombs.