YOBS have got away with vandalising council property in Witney on the vast majority of occasions over the past six months.

Witney Town Council had to spend £10,500 between July 7, 2014, and January 12, 2015, after vandals wrecked council-owned property including signs, flower arrangements, and a bird hide used by families.

Twenty-three cases of vandalism to publicly owned property were reported by the council. These were made up of 18 incidences of criminal damage, three of anti-social behaviour, one theft and one traffic accident.

But 16 of the incidents are officially classified by Thames Valley Police as “no further line of enquiry”. The remainder are still being investigated, but no charges have been brought.

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The council’s facilities manager Claire Swan said she was “perpetually disappointed” by the acts of vandalism.

She said: “For one incident, police arrested a couple of youths after a sign was vandalised but they told us they couldn’t fine them because they weren’t able to pay. We are getting much better at recording and logging the incidents and we always ring 101 and ask for updates, but on most occasions the incidents are listed as no further action.

“Our bird hide was vandalised. It’s there for families and children to go birdwatching. At the Burwell recreation ground we installed a music station for children, but the musical instruments were vandalised.”

Witney Neighbourhood Policing Team said two people had been given Youth Restorative Disposals, which are not criminal charges, for damaging road signs in the town centre. A spokesman added: “We have been receiving a few more reports of antisocial behaviour over the last month. The team will be increasing its patrols in the coming weeks to try and combat this behaviour.”