YOUTHS CAUSE £1,000 DAMAGE TO MUSEUM
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09:30 - 24 September 2007
Vandals have caused around £1,000 worth of damage to the city's Silk Mill by daubing graffiti over the walls and smashing windows.
Hoardings around the Cathedral Green development also suffered graffiti.
The incident on Friday has prompted museum staff to release CCTV images of one of the culprits in the hope that people will provide information to police.
The 14 graffiti tags and four smashed windows were discovered by staff at the Full Street museum when they arrived on Saturday morning.
Gallery supervisor Steve Palmer said it would cost £50 to remove each tag and a couple of hundred pounds to repair the broken windows.
He said: "It is very annoying, not only as a council employee but also on a personal note as it will be the taxpayers' money that pays for the repairs."
Earlier this month the Evening Telegraph reported how a mosquito alarm, which can only be heard by youngsters, was one of a series of measures proposed to keep troublemakers away from the Silk Mill and Cathedral Green.
The plan to install the high pitched alarm was in response to several incidents in the area, which includes one when staff saw 15 youths outside the Silk Mill, one of whom was carrying a ball-bearing gun.
Derby City Council's cabinet need to approve the proposal. Alan Graves, cabinet member for culture, leisure and direct services, said it was disappointing to hear that the Silk Mill had been vandalised.
He said: "I don't understand why they feel it is necessary to spray things on property that does not belong to them."