Kids have nowhere to play after nursery's toy houses are trashed

Oct 24 2008 by Laura McLachlan, Lennox Herald (main ed)

CRUEL vandals destroyed nursery playhouses at the weekend – almost two years to the day its gardens were trashed.

The wooden playhouses at Dumbarton’s Brucehill Nursery were smashed, overturned and broken up by yobs last Friday, leaving children no place for outdoor play.

Head of centre, Lynn McCafferty, was furious to discover the wrecked houses and branded those responsible “mindless”.

She said: “The houses were completely and utterly destroyed. They smashed them and ripped them to bits.

“It is totally intolerable and unnecessary vandalism. It’s really disappointing.

“There are 120 children that pass through this nursery and they get out to play every single day – we couldn’t let them out after this because it was so dangerous with the broken wood and smashed houses.

“People forget there are so few places for the children to play in this area, doing things like this will give them nowhere to go.”

In September 2006 thugs trashed a £1200 brand new garden at the nursery, prompting the public to raise cash to have it repaired.

Ms McCafferty is now urging West Dunbartonshire Council to invest in CCTV for the nursery grounds to stop it happening again.

She said: “I sent the form off to West Dunbartonshire Council right away to get CCTV. There is no way we’d have the funding alone to do that, but the way things are going we’re going to need it.”