Vandals ruin charity’s set of washing machines

CHARITY washing machines in Dundee have been vandalised for the third time in less than two months – leaving them out of action.

The washing and drier machines at the Fairfield Sports and Social Club football grounds on Drumgeith Road were targeted on Thursday evening – with the damage discovered yesterday.

The digital washing machines, which opened at the end of June, are open for the community to use with a percentage of earnings going towards the club’s charity food larder.

The club’s facilities manager, Danny McGregor, says it is the third time the machines have been vandalised since they opened.

He said: “You pay by card so there’s no money to steal. It’s just sheer vandalism.

“We’re going to lose out on money, all the machines are completely out of action.

“It left glass all over the car park, which impacts our car wash and the time it took to clean up the mess has put us behind on preparing for our food larder, which runs on Saturdays.

“The vandals threw bricks through the glass doors of the washing machines and just left the bricks inside them. They also smashed the automatic turn-off button and have broken the top of the machines.

“We don’t know exactly how much it’s going to cost to repair them yet but we do know it’ll be hundreds and hundreds of pounds.

“All of the machines are out of action now and we’re not sure when we’ll be able to get them fixed.”

It comes just eight months after a container at the club was broken into and thousands of pounds worth of damage caused by a fire.

Danny says the club are now looking into installing more security cameras to prevent further vandalism.

He said: “We have cameras around the grounds but not one covering that specific area so we’re now looking into getting funding for more CCTV, but that’ll also be costly.

“We’re looking for anyone with information as to who these vandals might be. We do a lot for the community so hopefully someone will come forward.”

Police Scotland said inquiries were ongoing.

Fairfield Community Hub’s Colin Lamb and Danny McGregor with a broken door.

The launderette has been targeted three times now.