Fire damage and vandalism at Ballyogan Football Pitches condemned

A Southside representative says a united effort is needed to deal with anti social behaviour and vandalism in the local community.

Dublin Rathdown Sinn Féin representative Shaun Tracey has said a multi-faceted approach involving community leaders, youth workers, schools, the Council and Community Gardaí is needed to tackle anti-social behaviour in Ballyogan after the vandalism of pitches at the Samuel Beckett Civic Centre last week.

Some of the damage done to the pirtches at Ballyogan

Speaking this week Mr Tracey said;

“Over the past week fires have been set on the pitches, both grass and astro-turf, in Ballyogan, boards on the astro pitches have been broken to gain access, bottles have been smashed and other litter such as empty cans etc have been left strewn across the place.

“There is also lots of broken glass around the estate.

“This has caused widespread anger in the community.  For many years we had no facilities in Ballyogan and what we have now has been hard fought for.

“We cannot allow these facilities to continue to be vandalised in the manner by anti-social elements.

“I have written to the Council, DLR Leisure and to the Gardaí this week about this issue.

“I firmly believe that good community policing can be a big help in steering young people away from this type of behaviour and the work of the youth workers in the area is also invaluable.

“A multi-faceted approach including community leaders, youth workers, schools, the Council and Community Gardaí, is needed to tackle this issue.

“Hopefully, with the easing of restrictions over the Summer months, many of the services and activities that have been difficult to provide for young people during lockdown will be able to get back up and running.

“At the end of the day, the damage can be repaired and the mess cleaned up, but unless we tackle this type of anti-social behaviour head on, it will only happen again.”