PETERSFIELD Cricket Club is fighting back after being targeted consistently by vandals for several years. The president of the club, John Sayer, has told Petersfield town councillors that, among the measures being considered, are closed-circuit television, cutting down more than a dozen trees to create sight lines from Heath Road, provision of new car parking and tougher padlocks. The measures come after the latest attack last week, when vandals tore sections of the cricket pavilion roof away and spelt out "it was us" on the cricket pitch in broken tiles. At the start of September, vandals removed tiles from the roof and cut a hole in the ceiling of the shower room. After that incident, Mr Sayer was critical of the police, telling town councillors he found it hard to understand why the town's police station was not manned in the evening, making it possible to deal with local crime problems. "In l950, for example, we had at least four or five local policemen with a lot less crime to deal with. Now the very opposite appears to be the cause." He said the club hoped to install CCTV and town councillors heard that he had already been talking to East Hampshire District Council about making the pavilion more vandal-proof. In addition, said Mr Sayer, the club wanted to improve the sight lines from homes in Heath Road East and was proposing to remove around 18 silver birch trees. However, he added, "where it was possible to replace them with indigenous trees of some attraction, we would like to do so, in order to enhance the appearance of that area for the future benefit of all concerned."
