AN Okehampton trader has hit out at vandals who caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to town centre premises during the Christmas break.
Miriam Hutchings of Telecare Electrics Ltd in Fore Street said the large plate glass window in her St James Street premises which was smashed in the attack will cost some £2,000 to replace, when materials, insurance excess and three hours worth of Bank Holiday labour costs are taken into account.
Mrs Hutchings said: 'The attack taking place in the morning of Boxing Day meant involving several parties to help with the tidy up and making the property safe for the remaining Christmas holiday — it certainly put the dampers on our celebrations.'
Mrs Hutchings said there were several incidents of similar types of vandalism to premises in the town centre over the Christmas period and retailers like herself were incurring repair costs 'time and time again'.
She said: 'This is not the first time we have been affected by vandalism. Our main shop in Fore Street has also endured damage.
'We are not the only ones to suffer and I am sure it will not be the last time anyone suffers damage to their property.'
Mrs Hutchings felt the only answer to curb such wanton vandalism would be the installation of closed circuit cameras in the main streets of the town.
'With all the investments that are being made for the enhancement of the town, this seems a purposeful course of action to follow,' she said.
Keith Perkin, police operational inspector for West Devon based at Okehampton, said: 'We have put a lot of funding into deploying additional officers in the streets on Friday and Saturday nights, which has seen the number of incidents and assaults reduced dramatically and at the moment these are on a downward trend.
'We are considering various forms of CCTV, including a mobile CCTV van, but there are a lot of regulations and red tape we have to abide by.'
Inspector Perkin said the Data Protection Act made CCTV installation complicated — there would also need to be strong evidence of an ongoing problem in the area.