Hi everyone.

Some sad news to report: St Marie’s suffered acts of vandalism last night.

I’m afraid that it cannot be cleaned off before today’s Update Tour. Some of the language used in the graffiti is offensive, so I wanted to apologise to today’s guests in advance.

The police have visited the site and CID need to visit before we can begin the clean up operation.

We are increasing security on site to 24 hours a day and we can only hope this isn’t the start of a reoccurring problem.

Along homophobic and racist graffiti, there are threats to burn the building down. Threats which are obviously unacceptable.

I spoke to Cllr Tony McDermott this morning, who had this to say: “What ought to be a joyous celebration of the saving of one of our towns most precious buildings is being undermined by mindless people who don’t understand the loving care that’s gone into the redevelopment of the building. This will be a building that’s of benefit to the whole community.”

Whilst this is the first time such messages have been conveyed by graffiti, it isn’t the first time that we’ve had them communicated to us. Rest assured that any further communication along these lines (whether verbal, e-mail or through social media) will be passed onto the police.

If you have any information about the culprits behind the vandalism, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Kind regards.

Matthew Roberts
(01928) 593 118