Westcliff Spiritualist Church targeted twice in a few hours (From Echo)

Westcliff Spiritualist Church targeted twice in a few hours

4:20pm Saturday 28th November 2009

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A CHURCH is facing a £500 repair bill after vandals superglued the locks on its doors.

Westcliff Spiritualist Church was targeted twice in the space of a few hours.

Treasurer Bill Fletcher arrived at the church hall in West- borough Road, Westcliff, to find a key had been broken off in the lock and glue squirted inside.

He managed to enter the building from the main church entrance and paid a locksmith £80 to fix the problem in time for Friday night’s meeting of the Westborough Residents’ Associat- ion.

But less than three hours later vandals attacked again, this time gluing both the door to the hall and the church so no one could enter. This will cost more than £400 to fix.

Mr Fletcher said: “Somebody was trying to stop the residents’ association from holding its meeting in the church hall.

“When I went back later the same evening to put the heating on, I found not only had the hall door been superglued, but they had also superglued the front door to the church.

“The residents’ group had to hold its meeting outside the nearby St Andrew’s Church in the cold that night.

“We couldn’t get into the church to hold our services until we got a locksmith to come out and fix it.”

The locksmith returned the following day so Sunday services were not disrupted.

The church now hopes to claim on its insurance.

The church has now told the residents’ association it can no longer hold meetings at the church for fear of further criminal damage.

David Glover, secretary of the association, believes it was targeted by people who wanted to disrupt its meetings.

He said: “The end result is we’ve lost these premises and we’re trying to look for somewhere else. We don’t want to take this problem elsewhere. If worst comes to worst, we’ll have the meetings in members’ homes.

“If anybody witnessed this despicable act, would they please come forward and inform the police?”

Anyone with information should call Leigh police on 0300 3334444.

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