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Wisbech vandals strike again




A beautiful butterfly sculpture in Wisbech Park’s community orchard has been destroyed.

The sculpture had been painstakingly built by visiting Siberian artist Natalya Shlyapina, who had been marooned in the town after visiting her boyfriend shortly before coronavirus lockdown.

The damage was spotted by Alan Wheeldon, who says it is an all-too-familiar problem in Wisbech.

The vandalised structure. (42216821)
The vandalised structure. (42216821)

Mr Wheeldon, who volunteers with the Wisbech in Bloom group as well as Street Pride.

He said: “Sadly, destructive vandalism like this is, to many, no longer a surprise.

“Indeed, when it was announced that a butterfly sculpture had been built, many predicted of its ultimate demise.

“For there is a battle going on in Wisbech. On one side are those who want to make it a cleaner, brighter, more beautiful and safer place to live and on the other side those that choose to destroy it.

“Their motives are a mixture of boredom, malicious intent, bravado and a feeling of invincibility in the absence of any adequate policing.

“It is primarily groups of young male teenagers.

“This was illustrated by the recent procession of incidents of vandalism, including a burnt down barn on a farm along North Brink and CCTV footage of boys breaking into the Ely House.

“Plus there are previous cases including the destruction of the bee hives in Wisbech Castle and the uprooting of all the plants in Museum Square, which were again caused by boys, all captured on camera.

“It is likely that the recent fires near the bandstand, the burnt out litter bins, the systematic destruction of the railings outside the museum and the smashed up toilets in the park were also caused by gangs of feral youths.

“Something has gone wrong in our society and the responsibility lies with the parents, the schools, the police and the courts.

“There has to be a radical and fundamental change in how we educate, discipline and reassign the destructive energy of male youths. Otherwise this is going to be a long and tiresome battle that I am not sure we can ever win.”



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