A spate of repeated vandalism at a community woodland site in Oldham is being investigated by police.
Graham Taylor, who is part of the Firwood & District Residents’ Association, says the vandalism has become worse over the last few months.
Grafitti directly targeting him has also been found on the site – with notes saying ‘Graham Taylor you w*****’ and calling volunteers ‘Karens’ also found.
Recently, the group’s sign was also dumped into the canal.
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The 76-year-old has now spoken with the police, saying: “They sympathise, they understand the situation, but at the same time I think we both understand there’s nothing they can do, really.
“Since then, Andrew, the local PCSO, dropped me a message saying he’s going to keep an eye on it as well as he passes by.”
The residents’ association will be discussing putting cameras up at their next committee meeting, in late August or early September.
The vandalism has previously seen children’s play equipment burned and community planters destroyed.
Mr Taylor said the vandalism started 13 months ago, but that it’s ‘all really kicked off’ in the last four months.
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He added: “It’s got worse in the last three or four months – this summer.
"The sign is a metre deep by one-and-a-half metres wide and very, very heavy and somehow they managed to transport that to the Rochdale Canal and throw it in.
“When I put up the wooden chimes they started breaking those and stealing the beaters. It’s been a progressive thing. Then they wrecked the children’s wooden activity play area. It’s all really kicked off in the last four months."
He added: “I just think eventually they’ll move on and find somewhere else. It’s a lovely area, at night it’s quiet. We’d love to have seating, wouldn’t it be nice to have seats where you could sit down and take five minutes? But we daren’t do it because they’d set fire to it or break it.
“I’ll be honest, when that sign was floating in the canal my heart sank, that was a lowpoint.
"I really questioned ‘Is it worth it?’. It’s only when you get this lady called Sophie – her and her nine-year-old son dragged it from the water.
“I thought ‘Oh wow, there’s people down there on Firwood who are concerned and doing it’, and then Dave turned up and he put the sign back together and put it back up on a post.
“I thought ‘yeah, something positive came out.’”
Greater Manchester Police has been contacted for comment.
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