Anger after Doncaster town's Christmas lights vandalised days after switch on

Decorations in Mexborough have been wrecked twice since the lights were turned on – and a local councillor has issued a defiant message to vandals telling them: “You will not win.”

Mexborough Labour ward councillor Bev Chapman said: “This week has been an extremely difficult one.

"As you all know, I had a vision of lighting up Mexborough, I promised the children at St John's School that we would light up Mexborough so Santa could see us from the sky.

"Unfortunately there's someone or some people in Mexborough that don't share that vision.

"For the second time our lights have been vandalised.

"Some wires have been snapped/ripped/cut, some have been turned off, some have had the batteries stolen.

"These lights belong to our community, paid for by you, some in memory of loved ones.

“How on earth can anyone damage them? They have tags on with names, they mean a lot to people. One man was in tears because he had a tree in memory of his dad.

"Whoever you are trying to destroy this project, you will not win. The lights where possible will be repaired, if they can't be repaired they will be replaced.

“If you have young ones who go out in the evenings – I'm honestly not saying it's youngsters, it could potentially be anyone – could you please have a word with them and explain what these lights are for, how important they are to the person that bought them, and to the whole community.

"If they see anyone tampering with them, to let someone know ASAP, please.

“These lights do look amazing, I haven't had any negative feedback on them at all, yet someone wants to drag us down.

“Let's get some community pride back in this town. I'm just so disappointed.”