Vandals strike South West sporting facilities in lead up to competitions as council hunts for answers

Vandals have struck Collie’s sporting facilities, leaving future competitions in jeopardy and the local government fuming. Shire of Collie president Ian Miffling said the junior soccer pitch at Roche Park was struck by a “wheelie moron” last Sunday night ruining the community field. “Everyone knows the problems we’ve had with our sporting fields so the last thing we need is some moron, or morons, coming along and undoing all the good remedial work our gardening staff have done over the past couple of months,” he said. Cr Miffling said driving cars around sports grounds should never occur and someone would know who was responsible. “I urge anyone who knows who was responsible for this to come forward,” he said. The damage covered two-thirds of a pitch being prepared for the upcoming junior soccer season. Cr Miffling said the Roche Park vandalism followed an incident at the Collie Recreation Ground where someone on an electric scooter did skids on newly laid turf late last month. “We are doing all that we can to remedy a bad situation at both the Recreation Ground and Roche Park but we are being impeded at every turn by people who have no respect for public property,” Cr Miffling said. The shire has also had to tackle various other acts of vandalism in recent times, including the desecration of the cenotaph at Soldiers’ Park in February when the council offered a $1000 reward for information. “Unfortunately, no one has come forward with information,” Cr Miffling said. Shire staff have been asked to come up with a policy that rewards residents who report people responsible for acts of vandalism. “Ratepayers would be horrified by the damage being done to public property, week in, week out,” Cr Miffling said. “They would be even more horrified to know that their rates are being used to make good these senseless acts.”