Damage to the Clapton Pond Notice Board
The main noticeboard at Clapton Pond near the bridge has attracted the attentions of a vandal who has gouged out marks all over the panels, mainly on the wording. We have already had to pay for one running repair to be done from a previous attack. This is quite upsetting as a lot of time and energy went in to designing the board, and writing the history which is printed on it.
The board was paid for through funds raised by CPNAG. We would like to identify this vandal and persuade them to stop. Does anyone have any idea who it might be?
Also we would welcome any ideas people have for making the board vandalproof. One suggestion is to have removable metal plates. There may be other ideas.
Please get in touch if you have an thoughts.
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What about a thick sheet of clear plastic screwed over the top. That way people who wished to read it still could. The vandals could carry on until they got fed up with it and the plastic could be replaced periodically. Additionally apply for CCTV to be installed although 1984 is not a good scenario.
Are the gardens locked up at night? If not then they should be. Persuasion is not going to work. Even in leafier, more affluent places than Hackney vandals smash off tree branches and young saplings. The only way is to make it imposssible for things to be vandalised and to have appropriate punishments for those caught. I would suggest casting the notice in Bronze or iron (as in the plaque to Blind Tom) but scrap metal thieves might start taking an interest. So we are left with either protection that can be replaced or protection that will not let the vandal under any circumstances be able to seriously damage it. Or it could be in a bigger typeface and raised out of reach perhaps fixed to the side of a tree. Of course you could still get stones thrown or snowballs. Whatever happens it will not solve the fundamental root causes of the problem only ameliorate them slightly so that they become less inconvenient.
The other alternative would be to employ a park keeper wearing a proper official uniform (not a woolly hat and a fleece) speaking English and not Hungarian. Then give him the proper backing, Arm him with a two way radio etc. You needed people like this even in the 50s when reportedly there was less vandalism. Perhaps there would be more respect for officialdom. Self policing doesn’t usually work unless the community has been brought up with a constant set of values. Proper full time officials may be more expensive than agency staff but Hackney would be the better for them. Some of that Olympic money could be spent on employing people to these posts from within the Borough instead of cheapskating with agency workers for whom this kind of employment is not a career.
Apart from that I have no idea what to do about this!