Fire-raisers slammed for torching toilets

VANDALS: Temporary loos trashed and set on fire at empty Forfar leisure centre

Community leaders have rounded on firebugs who torched temporary toilets at an Angus beauty spot.

Young vandals are suspected of causing the damage to the two loos which were sited near Forfar’s empty Lochside leisure centre.

The incident has been branded the latest attack in an “epidemic of idiocy” sweeping the town.

The vandals trashed the inside of both toilets, which had been bolted to the ground beside the former tennis courts after a previous incident when they were toppled over, before setting them alight.

Permanent new toilet provision is planned for Lochside. However, the move has been put on hold while the local authority awaits the outcome of a Court of Session judicial review challenge to the proposed demolition of the 40-year-old leisure centre building.

Forfar SNP councillor Lynne Devine said: “Everything is on hold at the leisure centre at the moment and we felt we needed something there.

“We perhaps could have had the toilet put there sooner, but virtually from the minute they went in they have been constantly vandalised in one way or another.

“There is a significant amount of damage and it is really very sad to see

“This is an epidemic of idiocy that has swept through any number of places you want to mention.

COUNCILLOR COLIN BROWN

things which are being asked for being put in place and then vandalised in this way,” she added.

Independent Forfar colleague Colin Brown said he was “absolutely furious” at the latest attack.

“This is an epidemic of idiocy that has swept through the Boyle Park, the Reid Park, Market Muir and any number of other places you want to mention,” he said.

“It sickens me that we continue to see this sort of thing, which helps no one and costs a lot of money we just don’t have.”

An Edinburgh hearing was held earlier this year following the legal bid launched by house builder Mark Guild and hotelier Donald Stewart to halt the bulldozers.

They insist the building has decades of life left in it for community use. Mr Stewart had a £30,000 offer for the premises rejected before the two men took the council to court.

The outcome of the case could deliver an early landmark ruling on community empowerment legislation which came into force last year.

The fire damage to one of the loos.