Thorpe St Andrew Town Council Parish Clerk Steven Ford in front of Fitzmaurice Pavilion where vandals have smashed one of four solar panels on the roof ( White shattered panel in picture ). Photo : Steve Adams

Thousands of pounds worth of damage has been caused to a community building in Thorpe St Andrew when an expensive solar panel was smashed.

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The solar panel, thought to be worth around £2,000, is one of four on top of the Fitzmaurice Pavilion on Pound Lane.

The damage was done overnight on Thursday of last week and follows an arson attack on a park bench in the area little more than three weeks ago.

On that occasion – around 10.45pm on Wednesday, August 31 – a £500 bench made from around 2,000 plastic bottles at the Laundry Lane Recreation Ground was destroyed.

The solar panel smashed in the latest incident was only installed around nine months ago so the latest damage caused by vandalism in Thorpe has come as another blow to Thorpe St Andrew Town Council.

It meant that a playgroup had no water on Friday and Steven Ford, clerk of the town council, says it is now likely all the money that would have been saved on fuel costs this winter will now be lost in paying for repairs.

“Whether someone has got up there and smashed it, or thrown stones at it, I’m not sure, but the damage is going to run into several thousand pounds.

“We had about 70 people from town and parish councils come to look at the Fitzmaurice Pavilion recently, to see our work as an example of how to make an existing building energy efficient, so this is certainly a galling incident.”

As with the torching of the bench on Laundry Lane, there are clear CCTV images from around the time. These show people moving across from Commonwealth Way to the youth shelter on the playing field and will be passed on to police.

Anyone who has information about this incident should contact the Thorpe St Andrew Safer Neighbourhood Team on 0845 4564567 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Have you got a story about the Thorpe St Andrew area? Call local reporter David Freezer on 01603 772418 or email david.freezer@archant.co.uk