OKEHAMPTON and District Chamber of Trade has this week condemned the latest incident of vandalism which has caused an eyesore in the town centre.

At some time between 3.30am and 4am on Sunday, March 22, a number of windows were smashed at the Little Red Rooster café premises on Fore Street. It is not the first time the café has been vandalised, with the windows having been replaced and the store front refurbished only a few days prior to them being smashed again on Sunday. A number of other store front windows have also been smashed and vandalised in recent months.

The town's chamber of trade has expressed its disgust at the latest incident and hopes that anyone who has any information on the vandalism contacts the police.

The chair of Okehampton and District Chamber of Trade, Donna Tombs, said: 'We are just sick to death of things like this happening.'

'It is ruining our town. All of our businesses are working really hard to make Okehampton a vibrant place and a great place to shop and to be — and people committing crimes like this are just ruining it and making things so much harder for us.

'It is bad enough that we have the Plume of Feathers right in the centre of town on Fore Street standing empty, without incidents like this making things look worse.

'A smashed window front is not attractive and it could frighten people off coming to the town to shop.

'It is not cheap to replace these windows, so there is no guarantee as to when the smashed store front would be replaced.

'We hope that anyone who knows anything would contact the police and share any information they may have. We also hope that if the culprit sees this, maybe they would think twice about committing such a mindless crime in the future.'

Donald Rooke, a member of the chamber of trade, said he could not understand why people would carry out such vandalism.

He said: 'It is such a shame that in our small Dartmoor town this is going on and making things harder for everyone.

'These are hardish times for lots of businesses at the moment and the last thing we need is idiots going around smashing windows and ruining our town.

'We have a lovely shopping centre and plenty of independent, character shops who do their best for the town and want it to survive and to thrive. I don't understand why these idiots keep doing this.'

The latest incident of vandalism was a hot topic of discussion at Monday's town assembly meeting in the Charter Hall.

Okehampton mayor Cllr Paul Vachon said he was disappointed by the latest incident.

He said: 'In the past I have lobbied for more money for the police. Personally I think we need more police on the streets and we need to lobby for that.'

Cllr Jan Goffey echoed the mayor's sentiments. She said: 'We need police in Devon and in Okehampton, not more cutbacks.

'Devon is one of the largest rural counties in the country. We don't need a county police commissioner getting paid a fortune in a shiny new office costing the county millions. We want police on the ground and on the street.'

Okehampton Police are very keen to speak to anyone who has any information about this crime. If you have heard anything or witnessed anything suspicious at all, please contact either PC Hannah Northcott or PC Nathan Walker on 101, quoting crime reference CR/019336/15.

You do not have to give your details to the police if you report anything and all information will be treated in the strictest confidence.