Vandalism at new Prislow Woods boardwalk project in Falmouth

The Prislow Woods Community Group has been working on a new boardwalk for the woodland area and is hoping to put on an opening ceremony at the start of September.

However, recently the boardwalk project has become the victim of several incidents of vandalism, as well as an attempted theft by what some members of the group are calling 'professional thieves.'

The team helping to put he project together.

Clare Lewis, who is Chair of the Prislow Woods Community Group, said: "Apparently a member of the public saw a black van, that three men got out of and tried to remove parts of the boardwalk, before he interrupted them and they took off.

"There's also been two lots of vandalism in the last week, too, people just smashing up parts of the boardwalk."

According to some members of the group some of the boardwalk's handrails were broken off and several decking boards broken.

"The guys down the have been building it for the past couple of weeks, and obviously we rope it off at the end of every work day.

Several parts of the boardwalk have been vandalised in the past week.

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"The Prislow Woods Community Group have raised in excess of £60,000 to put the path in place so people can use that green space, and it's all accessible etc.

"It's just a real shame as we're a couple of weeks away from finishing, and once there's a thoroughfare there there will be less anti-social behaviour as there will be more eyes on the place I would imagine.

The community group has said that the incidents will not affect their decision to open the boardwalk in September.

Clare continued: "That will all still go on hopefully.

"There's the stakeholders, and the mayor cutting the ribbon hopefully, but the idea is to get the community as vigilant as possible to make sure this doesn't happen again.

The Prislow Woods Community Group are hoping to open the boardwalk in September.

"We're getting a CCTV camera down there, but we're limited to what we can do to stop it happening.

"I understand there's a broader context of social issues there, but that doesn't really help our cause when we've worked for three years to raise all that money and get it started.

"The guys who are building it turn up every morning, and obviously it's quite upsetting for them to do a day's work then go back in the morning and see this has happened."

The group are hoping the opening of the boardwalk in September will feature music and will be looking to encourage people to bring food down and enjoy the day.

The Packet will publish more info on the opening as and when it becomes available.