Graffiti scrawling vandals left their mark on a newly-refurbished Keswick building as the paint was still drying.
A town council contractor finished adding a lick of gloss to the PUPS shelter by the town’s war memorial at around 4pm on Tuesday night. By the next morning park staff discovered that the paint work had been de-faced with a permanent marker pen.
It happened just days after graffiti was plastered on a wall at the back of the town’s bus station with what apparently looks like the same tag as was used on the PUPS shelter.
“We can remove it but it’s kind of disheartening especially when we have got grants for it,” said Keswick Town Council clerk Vivien Little. “You try to do something good and then something like this happens. It does sort of knock the wind out of you.”
The matter has been reported to the police and an appeal for information has also been placed on the town council’s Facebook page.
The PUPS Shelter at Wivell Bridge was erected in 1939 with monies raised by the Pushing Young People’s Society.
Its aim was to provide activities and engagement for young people by carrying out charitable work and they also raised money for the clock on the town hall building.
The Keswick Bridge (Lake District) Appeal, to which visitors to the timeshare resort can contribute, gave a grant of £500 towards the refurbishment of the shelter while the Geoffrey Blake Architectural Heritage Fund gave the sum of £2,258.94.
The grants have meant that the PUPS Shelter has had its rotting legs replaced, and been repainted in traditional green, which was the original colour of the shelter which fits in with the conservation area.
In 2008 the shelter was threatened with demolition following a barrage of complaints about anti-social behaviour taking place there – ironically young people had been using the shelter as a meeting place for drinking. It was saved and partly restored, minus the windows it originally had.
