Help - local youths damaging property

[HUGanALPACA]

I need help and suggestions - feel free to think outside the box.

I help at a local children’s organisation. We’ve got great grounds but because they are so large it is difficult to fence it off successfully. It’s become a gathering place for young people, especially in the winter. It has an arbour and fire pit. Last week children’s toys ended up being melted.

we can’t afford security round the clock but we could do some security cameras and are looking into this. As it happens at night when we are not there we don’t find the damage until the morning. The police are disinterested.

other than security cameras, can you think of any other ways we can discourage this anti social behaviour? We’re worried that our play area is going to be next.

any ideas to get this to stop?

Can you find a way to lock a cover of some kind on the fire pit, at least remove that temptation?

Can you set up the high pitch deterrent for night time use only?

I would also go for the high frequency deterrent.

This was happening in my local area, lots of talk about it on the local fb page and security cameras seemed to help.

Who owns the organisation and the property?

Can you apply for grants from anywhere for security? Funds are tight (thanks to Tory cuts to councils) but some funds do still exist for certain organisations.

Get into the local paper? Maybe the police can be shamed into doing something.

the fire pit is embedded into the ground but I’m thinking we cd padlock some sort of cover on it. Thank u 👍

Yes - was thinking this cd work but wondered if we mighupset neighbours who can’t see in but cd b disturbed by noise. However we cd try this even short term and let neighbours know it is just to disrupt the pattern of behaviour. Thank u 😊

Our one worry about going public is it might create more interest in the space and encourage more gathering 😬 but don’t know- cd be worth a go … thank u

It’s co owned by several entities and let out. We are main tenants so to speak and sublet to, all to organisations who are on tight funds. Will investigate possibility of funds for security cameras etc
thank you 😊

Go public about the damage and vandalism. Ask the local population to support fundraising for repairs.

Definitely this!

Also motion activated sprinkler...

Can you fence off the play area rather than the whole property? Also focus a motion sensitive solar powered light on the play area.

I like the sprinkler idea too.