Historic wall damaged by vandals (From Witney Gazette)

Historic wall damaged by vandals

1:59pm Tuesday 28th February 2006 in Witney

AN HISTORIC wall along a lane in Witney town centre has again been damaged by vandals who pulled out lumps of stone.

A section of the 18th-century limestone wall running down both sides of Puck Lane, between the Welch Way car park and Mill Street, has been pulled apart and masonry left on the path.

West Oxfordshire District Council carried out repairs last summer after it had been damaged. Now a section of the wall, owned by All Souls College, Oxford, has been vandalised. One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "I think the same people have been at it again over the last few weeks.

"They seem to tear parts of the wall off and throw it at each other.

"They'll pull a bit out and another until the wall falls down. I can't understand why this handful of young people we believe they're about 15 or 16 are allowed to go on doing this."

Staff from WODC have moved most of the masonry out of the path, but say repairing the wall is ultimately the responsibility of All Souls.

The Oxford college has been trying to sell a piece of land between Puck Lane and Dark Lane, including the old Early's blanket factory, which has had outline planning permission for 150 houses since 2003.

A spokesman for Cluttons, in Oxford, the college's land agent, said he believed the land could be sold within the next few weeks. The spokesman, Andrew Packe, said: "We repaired some of the wall a year or two ago. The situation at the moment is the sale is going through."

The college contributed to the £1.24m cost of the first stage of the West End Link Road as part of its planning agreement.

Graham Hawkins, from West Oxfordshire District Council, said: "We're going to contact the building control team to see if they can take action against the owners.

"They can oblige them to fix it if it is considered to be hazardous."