Over the past few weeks there has been a growing amount of damage being caused by children either playing the in or around the clubhouse. Instances recently have included bottles of water being thrown against the stairwell wall in an attempt to lodge them on the windowsill, this resulted in bottles bouncing off the wall and striking the “Owd’ Bongs” mural on the adjacent wall. The mural was painted by local artist Roger Hampson and presented to the club in 1966. It is irreplaceable and any damage caused to it would be extremely costly to restore, if at all possible.

Last Saturday afternoon children decided that it would be a good idea to stand on the toilet seats and cisterns, whilst wearing muddy shoes, which meant that the cubicles then had to be cleaned down before they could be used again. Had one of the cisterns broke off the wall whilst being stood on, then a serious injury could easily have occurred as well as extensive flooding. This is a new activity which can be added to the frequent sport of seeing how much paper can be stuffed down the toilet before they become blocked.

We have recently had to replace light fittings and CCTV cameras due to children playing football in the foyer and have had to replace door fittings and in one instance a cracked window in the foyer doors again down to footballs being kicked against the doors. Less damaging to the fabric of the building but certainly potentially far more damaging to the children involved is the current trend of jumping off the top stair hoping to land on the middle level, or even more disturbing, doing somersaults off the banister! Remember this could be your child who ends up badly hurt.

We do NOT own the clubhouse and any repairs caused by what is in effect vandalism, has to be paid for by us, unfortunately we cannot repair any damage caused to your children. I am therefore asking everyone to please respect the club, if it is your children causing the damage, please stop them, if you are asked by a committee member or a member of staff to stop your children, then please do not abuse the committee member or staff (as happens), just stop your children from potentially damaging the club or if you are not bothered about how the club looks, then do for the far more basic reason of preventing them from damaging themselves.

I would also remind members and parents that you are responsible for people you bring to the club and for your children and should any damaging occur that has been caused maliciously or wilfully, the club reserves the right of pursuing the member or parent for the cost of repair or replacement. The mural runs into five figures.