Members were saddened to arrive at their rooms in Dalley Street to find a sign and brand-new fence had been vandalised.

Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone us – (02) 4981 8882.
Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au

In the late hours of Sunday 7 July, the vandals seemingly tried to remove the sign from its anchor and bent it out of shape.

They stood on the pool fence to wrench the sign off the pole and snapped a post off at ground level.

“The only way to repair the fence is to replace two panels and core drill a new post hole,” said branch president Jodie Williams.

“We put in a pool fence as the old block fence was constantly being graffitied and we thought there would be less chance of that with this type of fence.

“It is so frustrating as we had a good amount of money earmarked for a local charity in Coffs Harbour, and now that money will need to be spent on repairs and a security system.”

Luckily, local contractor Mick from Bonville Fencing, who installed the fence, has been “fabulous”.

“He arrived quickly to assess the damage and put in a plan to fix the fence before any more damage was done.

“A new sign will have to replace the old, in a new location well within the boundary fences,” she said.

The incident has fuelled a decision to upgrade the building’s security system.

“The incident was reported to Coffs Clarence Police and installing a security system was their suggestion, as there is no actual footage of the damage being done.

“Just before and after the incident the vandals moved past the cameras at Parkside Radiology, who were very helpful in supplying what footage they could.”

However it was not enough for any police follow-up.

“It is disappointing to say the least.

“Even if the repair to the damage is covered by insurance, we are still out of pocket by $1000 plus a new security system.

“That money will now not find its way to the neediest charities in our community, which our members find incredibly frustrating.”

The branch owns their own rooms with no outside financial help.

The local CWA rooms are available for hire and the organisation’s policy is to offer discounts for not-for-profit and disadvantaged community groups.

“We manage to do this by relying on our voluntary members to cater and bake for events to bring in enough, to not only maintain our premises but help out financially in our community,” said Jodie.

By Andrea FERRARI