THE mayor of Camelford has expressed her disappointment over a spate of vandalism which occurred at the Camelford Hall toilets in early October.

Cllr Claire Hewlett has said it is ‘really disappointing’ to hear about the vandalism which has taken place in the Camelford Hall toilets.

An announcement was put up on Saturday, October 5 stating that the Camelford Hall toilets would be closed until further notice due to vandalism.

This announcement was followed by comments from people in the community who claimed there is not enough activities for young people in the area to keep them away from such behaviour.

But Cllr Hewlett believes it is wrong to make such early assumptions about Camelford’s young people, and disagrees with people’s claims that there is nothing for children and young people to do in the town. She said: “It’s really disappointing to hear of the vandalism and I don’t know quite why they do it.

“The comments on Facebook were automatic assumptions that the vandals were young people, and there is no evidence of that at all. It is really disappointing that people have jumped to that conclusion.

“If it was young people, it would be a small percentage of them — so about two or three in total, a minute percentage of our young people in Camelford.”

She was keen to reiterate that there is plenty of activities for young people in the town.

She said: “For our under 12 and 11s, we obviously have the play area in the park (Enfield Park), and for the older ones we have the skatepark. I understand that if you don’t skate then that’s not helpful.

“My experience with young people is that they don’t like being organised by adults. They like their own space to do their own thing.

“I think we could do with some guidance with youth workers, which we don’t have because of budget cuts — that’s one of the first things that was cut across the Duchy, not just here. We are seeing the effects of no youth service in the town, which comes down to money. We need youth workers but that comes down to finances, as it always does.”

Cllr Hewlett added: “As Camelford Hall is not owned by us it doesn’t come through us (the town council), so I am not aware of the extend and level of the vandalism which has taken place.”