Surrey car park where ‘kids set off missiles’ is shut down
A multi-storey car park in Ashford has been closed following “shocking” vandalism which caused significant damage. Spelthorne Borough Council announced on Wednesday (June 8) that it had made the “difficult decision” to close the car park on Church Road after targeted vandalism against fire doors, stairs, shutters, barriers and lighting in the building. Surrey Police said it was proactively patrolling the area in response to the antisocial behaviour but the council said the safety of users was now at risk.
A spokesperson for the council said in their statement announcing the closure they had no decision but to close the car park. They said: “This has been a very difficult decision. Closing the car park is the very last thing we wanted to do but this shocking level of vandalism has caused so much damage that we cannot risk the safety of users.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience that this will cause for some people but hope everyone will understand that we really had no choice in the matter.” READ MORE:Care service staff ‘don’t keep word’, ‘wanted to get out quickly’ and didn’t show up, inspection finds One of those shocked at the vandalism was Ashford resident Simon Robins.
However, he said the level of damage did not warrant the entire car park to be closed as it would affect both residents and businesses in the town. He argued Spelthorne Borough Council should have done more to prevent this from happening in the first place. He said: “The council should have done a lot more than what they did, they didn’t really look after it.
It doesn’t help when kids are setting fires, riding their bikes and setting missiles off. It’s outrageous at the end of the day and it’s uncalled for. It’s going to close now and it’s just going to cause more problems.
“When the police are called out to incidents they never follow it up, they either drive by or it’s too late. You have to weigh it up with how bad the damage is when deciding to close it. Personally from being around that car park a few times the vandalism does restrict what you can use but people can still spark.
The town will lose out.” A spokesperson for Surrey Police added: “Our Ashford team are certainly well aware of the multi-storey car park and are deployed regularly to cases of anti-social behaviour there, as well as proactively patrolling the area. They are working hard to target various ongoing low-level crimes in the area, and ASB in the car park forms part of that work.”
Anyone with information regarding the vandalism is asked to contact Spelthorne Borough Council on 01784 451499.
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