VANDALS continue to target a Cwmbran football club, including setting fire to the pitch, covering it in broken glass and smashing the concrete dug-outs, according to club officials.

Lucas Cwmbran FC say the club’s facilities have been a target for anti-social behaviour for more than a year, with the pavilion being daubed with graffiti and club officials complaining of litter being strewn on the pitch and in the dugouts.

On Saturday the Gwent Division Two side’s concrete dug-outs were smashed, meaning they will now have to be replaced, an extra cost to a club already struggling for funds after metal thieves stole a large copper boiler fromthe club in 2011, leaving them without hot water for their showers. Club chairman Dave Moyes said vandalism has cost them in excess of £1,000.

“One of the league rules is you have to have dug-outs for the subs and they’ve smashed them on Saturday so now they will have to be replaced, which is another cost.” Club secretary Ray Allford said: “At the end of last season they set fire to the pitch and there’s often youngsters down there drinking, smoking.

“There’s been bottles smashed on the pitch, graffiti on the pavilion.Weare trying to give people somewhere to go and enjoy themselves and this is being ruined by idiots.”

Mr Allford said the club had even tried putting up a sign asking that if litter had to be left by youths could they put it in bags which the club provided in the dugouts and then the club would clear it away after them.

But even that failed as the sign was set alight.

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said: “This area forms part of the regular patrol plan of the Cwmbran Neighbourhood Policing Team.

“Last weekend officers seized alcohol from youngsters in the area and letters have been sent home to inform their parents.

“Anyone experiencing anti-social behaviour in their neighbourhood or anyone who witnesses any form of criminal damage is encouraged to report it to Gwent Police as soon as possible so officers can take the necessary action.”

ARGUS COMMENT: Thwart the vandals

THE vandalism being inflicted on a Cwmbran football club is quite shameful.

It is almost unbelievable that Lucas Cwmbran FC is still being plagued by mindless yobs months after we first reported the problems the club was suffering.

In the latest attack the club’s dugouts were destroyed, meaning yet more expense for an organisation that can ill-afford such costs.

The club has suffered from drugs paraphernalia and broken bottles on its pitch, fires being set, and graffiti in its pavilion.

Enough is surely enough for the small club.

Vandalism over the last year has already cost it in excess of £1,000 – that is a lot of money for an amateur club playing in the Gwent League.

Police say the club’s ground is in a part of Cwmbran that is regularly patrolled – but the police presence has obviously not been enough to prevent these attacks.

Gwent’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Ian Johnston, has made tackling anti-social behaviour one of his key priorities for his term of office.

Making anti-social behaviour a priority is one thing, proving to victims that you are going to do something about it is quite another.

Wouldn’t it be great, therefore, to see some more resources given to police to stamp out problems like those suffered by Lucas Cwmbran FC once and for all?