Vandalism to Alexandra’s public toilets over the past year has amounted to $57,000 worth of damage, and police say security cameras will make their job a lot easier.

The Central Otago District Council’s property team was also called out to Pioneer Park on Saturday morning, to clean up broken glass from beer bottles, including in the children’s play area, toilets and steps behind Central Stories.

Industrial vacuums have had to be used to make the area safe again, and Senior Constable Graham Perkins said extra patrols of the area didn’t find any offenders.

“We really need security cameras in there,” he said.

This has been reiterated by other police officers also in recent weeks, as they continue to struggle to find any leads for damage around the town without substantial proof.

Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said council has discussed security cameras in the past, but they unfortunately were not high on the priority list, “which is extremely truncated at the moment due to the long list of cost increases that we have no choice over.”

He agreed it was a “phenomenally annoying and needlessly expensive problem” caused by a very small number of people.

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