Sinn Féin Councillor Tom Cunningham has hit out at “senseless” vandals who have destroyed a decorative wishing well which had been installed in Aston Village only a fortnight ago.
Cllr Cunningham commissioned the wishing well to be made by Tullyallen Men’s Shed and gave it as a gift to Aston Village and arranged for delivery just two weeks ago. Volunteers of the Aston Village Grass Committee then set about cementing it in and planted flower beds around it and according to Cllr Cunningham “it brightened up the place and was pleasing to the eye. It improved the aesthetics of the well-kept area and many people commented on it.”
However, Cllr Cunningham received a call on Friday morning to say that vandals had broken the new wishing well, an act that Cllr Cunningham described as “senseless vandalism.”
“This Wishing Well belongs to the residents of Aston Village who had spent money, time and effort to plant the flowers and clean up around it. They were proud of their efforts and rightly so and for young ones to come along and just break it down for the sake of it, it beggars belief. They just don’t care and have little or no respect for anything nice.”
When asked about CCTV, Cllr Cunningham said “the good thing is that CCTV caught it all and footage of the young thugs is in the hands of the Guards. These were not young kids fooling around, these were young males, around 16 years of age who behaved as though they were the worse for wear, deliberately setting about the Wishing Well with the sole purpose of destroying it.
“Make no mistake about it, I am very angry at the thought of these thugs setting out to undermine and attack the excellent efforts of the residents who manage to keep the estate in pristine condition. Hopefully they can be identified and prosecuted accordingly.”
