Doncaster community campaigner's despair as bus stop adverts smashed repeatedly by yobs

Vandals have targeted adverts on shelters along Thorne Road near to Sandall Park numerous times in recent months, with the yobs breaking glass panels sometimes moments after they are replaced.

Local resident Sandra Crabtree, who was formerly chairman of the Friends of Sandall Park campaign group, has contacted transport bosses, Doncaster Central MP Dame Rosie Winterton and City of Doncaster Council asking for the panels to be ditched completely.

She said: “I've been trying since November to get South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive to stop putting these ridiculous panels up that get smashed within hours of being put up.

"Doncaster looks like a slum as people come in off the motorway.

"They insist they're going to keep putting them up - with stronger glass.

"These panels have been broken since November - they said then they'd fix them by February or March this year. It is ridiculous.”

The panels are on shelters along Thorne Road from the West Moor Link Road, which connects the city to the M18 at Armthorpe.

An email from Doncaster Council’s Stronger Communities Central Team manager Joanne Evans and shared with the Free Press said: “The issue is mainly focused on the advertisement panels within the shelter and that unfortunately this is something widespread not only in Doncaster but across the region in terms of the targeting through vandalism.

“Confirmation was received from SYPTE on December 12 that the screens would be replaced during January / February and when chased in January, I was informed on 25 January that that the screens had been replaced and the shelter fully operational again.

"Unfortunately on the 26 January, SYPTE themselves identified and reported that very shelter had been targeted again and panels smashed, raising the point that this was a continual problem and a longer term solution was clearly needed.”

SYPTE is understood to be trialling doors with toughened glass and the letter added: “The retrofit of the new screens is different, basically the screen will not have glass but the door will have the toughened glass and is the same principal as double glass where there is an air gap between the two and that both designs were designed by Samsung and approved for outdoor use.

"If any breakages occur then it is just a door swap rather than the whole unit.

If this proves successful then 25 smashed screens currently on-street will be changed to have this design, with the remaining screens being changed as and when they get damaged.”

The SYPTE has also said if the new designs don’t reduce the impact of vandalism they will install CCTV as an additional deterrent.

The letter added: “I can give assurances that SYPTE are working with us on this as the cost to them is increasing and they are desperate to find a solution, not just for this site but for the additional 26 similar situations at other locations.”

We have contacted SYPTE for further information.