Staff at a New Brighton hardware store arrived at work this morning to find every wall of the building streaked with graffiti, with cans of pink and blue paint left open on the ground. The words "FLYING DUTCHMAN SHOP LOCAL" were scrawled on the wall of Rightway DIY shop on Victoria Road overnight.
Repeated targeting
Managing director David Clarke said it was not the first time the shop had been targeted by vandals, which he believed was motivated by personal grievance.
He said: "When we took the unit on, there was a small group of local people who were quite against us taking the site and tried to create an action group, for want of a better term, saying we don't want a superstore. That sort of all calmed down as we opened and people saw that we are a community-led business.
"There was various street art on the building when we took it on and some of it was quite political. The Victoria Quarter has some absolutely fantastic murals. The ones on the building we occupied had more of a political undercurrent."
Political murals and community reaction
He described previous artwork on the building, including a picture of Mickey Mouse "looking not his usual self" that some children found scary, and an image of 10 Downing Street with a dog peeing on the front door. The building was painted magnolia to make it clean and tidy, and he said things had been "sort of OK" since, aside from minor spray and graffiti.
Clarke said the latest attack "appears to be related to us not being a local business." He added: "From what I've been told by the store manager, the local community like the fact that we are there and the building is in use. We supply to local people, we employ local people, so I'm not sure where all this 'shop local' comes from."
Police appeal
The building was targeted overnight, either late on Sunday or in the early hours of Monday, September 21. The matter has been reported to Merseyside Police.
Clarke said: "It wasn't there when we came into work on Sunday, it was there this morning. The police have been out and we will wait for a police response before we do anything with it. But it doesn't look very good, so we'll do something to paint over it fairly soon."
He described the distress caused to staff, saying: "The team that work there are all local people and were very distressed to come into that, and it just feels like bullying people who have nothing but good intentions. We're a local and business and we're employee owned. It's just such a shame. Whoever has done it has left pots of paint on the floor, they've sprayed the pavement as well, it's just ridiculous. It's complete lack of thought for the community."
Merseyside Police said: "We are appealing for information following reported criminal damage caused to a shop in New Brighton. Earlier today, Monday September 21, it was reported that someone had painted on a wall at Rightway, on Victoria Road. Enquiries are ongoing into the incident. If you have any information you can call 101 or DM us on social media quoting log number 238 of September 21."
