Sunnyside Day Nursery in Greengates has windows smashed by yobs

Sunnyside Day Nursery, in Brunswick Works, New Line, had four windows in its baby room badly smashed by large stones between closing at 6pm last night and opening at 6.30am today.

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said officers are investigating criminal damage at the nursery that happened during that time period.

Sunnyside has been going for about 20 years now and has been run by Laura Phillips for the last eight years, who has worked at the setting for 12 years in total.

The manager said the nursery – which caters for around 30 children a day usually - has never had any vandalism or trouble until now.

She said: “Once or twice we know we’ve had people jump over the garden to play.”

Staff were left shocked at what they saw when they arrived at the premises this morning.

Mrs Phillips said: “I was not here first thing, it was one of my staff.

“They were driving up the drive and they said, ‘has that window smashed, or is it the sunlight – no it’s smashed’.

There were large stones littered around the outside area of the building and four windows were smashed.

A fifth window looked to have also been targeted, but this suffered significantly less damage and Mrs Phillips thinks those throwing the stones were caught in the act at that point and left.

The nursery is based in Greengates, but is within the vicinity of the Thorpe Edge and Ravenscliffe estates.

The latter in particular has been blighted by anti-social behaviour over the past month, with the latest episode happening on Easter Monday when two 645 buses were attacked by youths.

Mrs Phillips believes the vandalism to her nursery may have been caused by the same yobs, or a similar group.

She said: “They’re too similar, it’s the same MO – bricks through a window – and we don’t have any enemies.”

She added: “I don’t think you can blame you can blame the school holidays, because it’s been going on for a while now.

“They’re doing it on the night. They’ve got no balls to do it in the day when they would get caught.”

Thankfully none of the windows were put through, but this was only due to the panes being triple-glazed, and made from airport-grade glass.

Mrs Phillips still had to close the baby room to ensure the safety of those attending the nursery, until the windows are secured.

The manager finds it all the more shocking that the perpetrators have targeted a setting that is there to support very young children.

She said: “I’m not condoning doing it to buses or that either, but it’s a children’s nursery – that’s our baby room.

“We can’t go in until it’s secure.”

She added: “It’s not nice for the children to see either. They’re asking questions.

“We’ve 0 to four here, they’ve been asking questions, obviously we’ve told them the truth.”

Mrs Phillips dreads to think what would have happened if the attack had taken place while the nursery was open in the day.

She said: “It would be awful. We’d ring 999 and get the children to safety.

“I just can’t imagine.”

The whole ordeal has left the team upset, angry and frustrated, especially as the business is in the process of recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic – which hit nurseries harder than most - and the disruption caused by the major Greengates Crossroad development nearby.

Mrs Phillips said: “We’re still trying to survive the pandemic, Covid, the roadworks.

“Obviously it’s us that’s going to have to pay for it. Insurance goes up, the excess.”

The nursery manager posted about the vandalism on a Facebook community group for the local area and she revealed that people are becoming frustrated with the continuing issues.

She said: “People are commenting on my post about doing their own thing, vigilante. I would never condone it, but that’s where it’s going to head, isn’t it, if it carries on.

“We’re going to have our own warzone.”