Star Comment: Attacks on theatre so infuriating
In recent years the Dudley Hippodrome has been the focus of tireless efforts by local people to find some way of bringing this valuable resource back into use.
Now we discover vandals are causing so much damage that it is delaying restoration. efforts to restore the derelict building.
It would be nice to say we are shocked that a small minority should be able to thwart the efforts of so many people prepared to give up their own time to raise money and put in the work to try and restore the Hippodrome. It would be nice to say it, but untrue.
The efforts of the mindless few have always plagued those who would try to improve life in the Black Country, whether it is vandals bringing the Metro trams to a halt or chucking bricks at those using our canals.
It must be intensely frustrating for those that have put work into raising money for the Hippodrome to see it having to be spent on improving security. Their efforts are intended to bring this theatre back into use for the whole community.
The graffiti and damage sustained by the Dudley Hippodrome will also need money to put right.
The worry, of course, is that a sustained campaign of vandalism could add so much to the overall costs of the scheme, and to the time the renovation work takes, that it puts the whole project at risk.
Surely everyone wants to see the Black Country Hippodrome team succeed in their efforts to get the 80-year-old building back up and running by the target date of 2021. It has not been an easy path so far, and this latest spate of vandalism cannot help.
There may be people out there who know vandals who are responsible for the damage at the Hippodrome. It would be in everyone’s interests if they were to make their information known to the police. If the culprits are found and prosecuted, the courts need to make an example of them to deter anyone else from following in their footsteps.
This is not just petty vandalism. This is an act that, whether by intent or accident, could frustrate the aims and wishes of the vast majority of local people.
Vandalism is generally the stupid, petty and vicious action of those with little else capable of occupying their tiny minds. That they should be able to frustrate those trying to do some good in the world is something that must infuriate all right-thinking people.
