More Vandalism at Mill Meadows

On Friday evening, vandals pushed over the fencing surrounding the adventure playground at Mill Meadows.

Vandalism continues to be a problem along this stretch of the river, which saw two boats have their windows kicked in (one twice in two weeks), in December.

There are three CCTV cameras installed at Mill Meadows which are monitoring the area but this doesn’t seem to deter the vandals committing these crimes.  There were many calls from Henley residents on Facebook for more neighbourhood policing in this area.

Jessica Sinclair also responded on Facebook to say that there is also regular vandalism of the life rings which are taken from the boards and thrown into the river.  She said, “Between myself and Alex Bell, Henley Town Council Park Warden we are managing the return of these very important water safety devices.  I have been lucky enough to find many of them entangled along the river while paddle boarding and return them only to have it happen again and again.”

Henley Mayor, Councillor Kellie Hinton said, “What happened is a pointless act of vandalism to an area normally enjoyed by children. By coincidence, the town council are in the process of replacing that particular fence, but the mindless crime down at Mill Meadows needs to stop. If any body knows anything about what happened or similar incidents in that area, they should report it by calling 101. Lack of police presence is something being discussed regularly locally, also touched upon when the police commissioner came to Henley recently. Perhaps this is something we need to address again with our neighbourhood police team when they next attend a Town and Community committee council meeting.”