A poppy wreath handmade by volunteers from the Royal British Legion was torn down by vandals at Castle Court Shopping Centre in Caerphilly town.
The wreath was hung at the centre but was cut down by a group of teenagers on the night of Sunday, November 5.
The group then kicked and threw the wreath around, bending it out of shape. The act of vandalism, and the members of the group, were all caught on CCTV.
Colin Thomas, Manager of Castle Court Shopping Centre, said: “The Royal British Legion spent many hours making that wreath for us.
“It was up for the best part of a week before it was ripped down.
“However, I’m pleased to say that we’ve managed to straighten it out and repair it, and it is now back up.”
In addition to the poppy wreath, the shopping centre has installed a remembrance garden underneath its bandstand and has also given one of its empty units over to this year’s Poppy Appeal to be used as a ‘pop up shop’.
As part of the appeal, volunteers from the Caerphilly branch of the Royal British Legion have also produced a stunning ‘poppy wreaths’ display on an area of land near the cenotaph in the town.
Last year, the Caerphilly branch raised a record-breaking £35,336 for the Poppy Appeal, a 44% increase on what was raised the year before.
The branch are striving to raise a similar amount this year.
• This years’ Service of Remembrance in Caerphilly town takes place on Sunday, November 12 at 3pm at the cenotaph.
For a full list of services across Caerphilly County Borough click here.
Yet another example of why we need “Bobbies back on the beat”.
At least the culprits have been caught on CCTV so should be identified and punished.
It also shows that a minority of todays youth have respect for nothing.
Yes totally agree with youJohn, the minority have no respect for anything, they should be named and shamed in public. They do not understand that what we all take for granted today, has been paid for, in full by the sacrifice of others, from all nations and we must never forget that.
Totally agree – a time for all of us to reflect and remember all those “who gave their tomorrows for our todays” in conflicts past and present.
It is important to remember that our armed forces are involved in current conflicts throughout the world and many have lost their lives,but many have also suffered life changing injuries,affecting both their physical and mental health.
They have given selflessly to protect others.
Sadly there are too many knuckle draggers who think it’s acceptable behaviour to go around smashing things up just for a laugh, this mindless destruction could be stopped in a heart beat if we brought back national service – but then the poor little souls would complain that it would be against their human rights. Yet I believe bringing back national service would eliminate a large amount of crime, this is not something police effectively can deal with, national service would teach these idiots some respect and the armed forces would bash some discipline into them.
A disgusting act of vandalism which needs to be punished. Once again this is through lack of police out on our streets. I read an article in the argus : Gwent Police maintains ‘good’ rating for third year in row in ‘Police Effectiveness, Efficiency and Leadership&rsquo. If this is their verison of good i would hate to see poor. The problem we have is these CPOs and council wardens who think they are doing the job of a constable, which they are not. They cant enforce the law the same so whats the point of them??? People laugh at them because they think they are important but they are not. So lets get rid of them and put the money towards the real police not the ones who pretend to be police.
Just Prophets of Propaganda – do they really think the public believe all they tell us ?????
I walked past Burger King the other week and a kid of about 10 walked out and launched his drink in the air and onto the floor.
I tried remonstrating with him but he told me to f**k off and refused to pick it up.
A poppy display would mean nothing to the likes of him as there are no consequences to him. Even if the perpetrators are found NOTHING will happen to them, and their parents (if present/ conscious) will defend them to the hilt and NOT punish their kids either.
There is currently no answer to this issue, non at all!
We’ve not hit rock bottom yet but we will.
Maybe it’s time we started punishing their parents then – perhaps we should make them attend parenting classes in their leisure time (ie: weekends and evenings ) perhaps by inconveniencing the parents it would make them alter their childrens bad behaviour
If they fail to attend the classes then fine them – keep inconveniencing the parents and I’m sure it would produce results.
Here here. Yes that would be a good idea. Parents just do not want to take responsibility for their children, they want everyone else to. It really is about time parents were made to be responsible for their children’s actions and maybe, just maybe bad behaviour will start to decline. I think the problem is though that the do gooders of society will argue that parenting lessons would be an infringement of civil liberties.
Yes I am sure the do gooders would complain – it is the do gooders in society who are partially to blame – for tying the hands of those who attempt to deal with issues such as this.
I always call those who are responsible for the official tolerance of bad behaviour “do badders” as they certainly do no good for the suffering majority.