“MINDLESS” vandals have caused “havoc” by damaging parts of a Bradford park, claimed a councillor.

Councillor Tariq Hussain (Lab, Great Horton) slammed the people who have broken down fencing, ripped tennis court nets, damaged tarmac, ripped up grass, and daubed graffiti on bins and a building at Brackenhill Park, Great Horton.

The vandalism has happened over the last two weeks, following on from Bradford Council’s recent improvement work to the tennis court.

Cllr Hussain, who is also chairman of the Friends of Brackenhill Park, said: “The problem is going to be that people become reluctant to use the park because of safety concerns.

“We have got to look at it on a safety thing as well. Also, if children are playing on it, there is a danger of them hurting themselves.

“It is also not fair. People use the park but cannot make full use of the facilities because of mindless people like this.

“We want the park to flourish and for people to use it as an amenity.”

He added: “It is appalling that mindless individuals resort to such stupid behaviour when all the community is pulling together to work hard and take pride in the local environment to ensure that everyone enjoys our park facilities.

“They have cut the fencing, damaged the posts and are starting to dig into the turf now.

“I want to highlight it, really, to the public, to show them what has been going on.

“We want to say ‘what is going on?’ We are trying to improve the area.

“We have no idea who has done it, but they are mindless, silly people. We want to highlight the problem and stop people doing it.

“It is mindless. They are mindless people who don’t think things through and who are just causing havoc for the sake of things, really.”

Cllr Hussain said a lot of work was going into improving the park for the use of local residents. He added: “We are doing a lot of things on the park to try and improve it, such as benches and things for young children in the play area.

“We are looking to develop the tennis courts as well, and maybe to put in some adventurous things. Something like this does not help us at all.”

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