A Castlederg UUP Councillor has branded a group of vandals who tore down a newly erected ornamental town clock in Castlederg as "mindless thugs".
Speaking to the ‘Journal’ yesterday UUP Colr. James Emery said that he was “disgusted” by the actions of a few who were ‘hell bent’ on causing destruction in the centre of Castlederg in “broad daylight” on Friday evening past.
“It is a total disgr
ace, residents awoke to the damage on Saturday morning, and those responsible can only be described as mindless thugs who have no thought whatsoever for the local environment or improvements to the town centre,” he said.
He continued: “The scheme was part of a cross-border HEART initiative managed jointly by Strabane District Council and Donegal County Council, which assisted 11 other towns and villages on both sides of the border undergo environmental and heritage regeneration and the new clock was welcomed by the local people as it replaced an earlier one which was destroyed in the terrorist campaign,” he said.
The town clock, which was erected just three weeks ago to coincide with the official opening of the ‘Starfields’ sculpture designed by Derry sculptor Locky Morris, has now been left as a “stump”, according to Colr. Emery.
The e3 million cross-border HEART project (Heritage, Environment, Art and Rural Tourism) last week celebrated the completion of 12 sculptures, which are dotted around towns and villages in Strabane and Donegal.
The new pieces of public art were designed as a shop front scheme to encourage local businesses to improve their image, whilst providing a whole range of environmental improvements in each locality.
Colr. Emery also urged anyone with any information about the incident to contact the local PSNI.
The full article contains 291 words and appears in Journal Tuesday County Edit newspaper.
