Vandals’ graffiti attack on surgery

A LITTLEPORT surgery has again become the target for vandals.

Staff at the St George's Medical Centre arrived on Monday morning to find obscene graffiti scrawled in foot-high letters across the side wall.

Vandals damaged the electronic equipment put up to deter them.

Practice manager Yvonne Bartram said she feared for her staff's safety at the Parson's Lane site, which has had ongoing problems with vandalism.

"Nobody wants to go out of that side door," she said. "Staff have discovered unspeakable things and I don't want any of them to be photographed for fear of reprisals.

"We all live in or near the village and don't want to be associated with language like that.

"We just want to get on with our jobs of being public servants and treating patients and are really at our wits' end."

But commissioning manager Gary Shepherd is determined to stop the vandalism by working with local authorities.

"These people are so gutless they put that graffiti down the side of the centre where they can't be seen by our cameras," said Mr Shepherd.

"We had installed netting to stop them blocking up the drains and they ripped that down. Now we've got to take our issues to the parish council in December and schedule an agenda item."

Councillors will consider installing a link to the central Littleport CCTV system operated from the Barn. In the past police have been unwilling to accept tapes from the current CCTV camera which does not provide a clear picture.

At the Littleport parish council meeting on Monday, councillors Andy Wright, Malcolm Pyrah and Paul Cox agreed to visit the St George's site.

They will discuss erecting a permanent barrier across the front of the site or building sleeping policemen at the entrance to the centre to prevent boy racers from using the car park as a rally track.