Council is disappointed by a spate of acts of vandalism and theft over the holiday period at public facilities, and has called for anyone with information to come forward.

A gas water-heating unit was stolen at the Oval; graffiti was sprayed on changing rooms at Heath Johnston Park and on new signs at Whataupoko Mountain Bike Park; windows were smashed on the toilet block at the Botanical Gardens; and at Alfred Cox skate park the top platform and a section of framing on the small half pipe were smashed.

“We are appealing to the public for any information on what happened at those locations,” said Laird Kennedy, community assets and resources manager at Council.

“These are public facilities that we all enjoy using and want to continue using, so we’d like to put a call out to everyone to be a bit more vigilant around the spaces we enjoy. It’s certainly disappointing and we will fix the damage as quickly as possible, but it means we are taking backward steps when we should be focusing our spending on moving forwards for our community.

“We pride ourselves on providing a warm welcome everywhere to our residents and visitors, and incidents like this make it harder for everyone.”

He said the vandalism had been reported to the police and information from the public would be appreciated.

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