We moved to the village at the end of August 1979 which means we have just clocked up 43 years as Hethersettians. That time has seen us start out as relatively young, move through middle age and now be what could be called senior citizens although I still feel about 20 apart from when I've been sitting in a chair for some time and get up and find I can hardly move.
In those 43 years we have seen mindless vandalism on numerous occasions. Indeed it comes in waves. Occasionally there is a lull and then it picks up again and it is something we have had to live with. In those 43 years I have worked in various capacities in an attempt to cut down on vandalism, including working with Norfolk Police.
One of the worst hit areas for obvious reasons is the Memorial Playing Field. the old pavilion was regularly attacked with graffiti, had guttering ripped off and was generally vandalised. I firmly believe this happened because of the nature of that building which has been referred to as "not fit for purpose," "a slum" and a few other words a lot less polite.
Villages much smaller than ours have first class facilities which, as far as I know, are not subjected to vandalism. When we get our new pavilion it will enhance our facilities in the village considerably. This in itself will mean it is used more often. It will also look like a proper building and that in itself will somehow deter vandalism (yes I do firmly believe that).
Also, hopefully, we will have a building that we can take pride in. If a pristine building is vandalised people will get angry about it. When the old pavilion was vandalised it was just a matter of "well they can't make it worse than it is."
So let me try to describe the old pavilion. Well it was a squat brick structure. As you went through the front doors which looked more like a prison than a welcoming building, you had a small dirty kitchen on your right that looked as if it may have come out of the ark. To your left were two changing rooms with concrete floors and benches. This meant that only two football teams could use them at any one time and you certainly couldn't have them used by both sexes or by adults and children for obvious reasons.
Then there were squalid toilets and filthy showers. I don't use these words because nobody ever cared for them. I use them because you could clean them for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and they would still be grotty. I believe you even had to put 50p in to make the showers work, but they weren't the kind of shower you would want to use anyway.
Not to put too fine a point on it - the pavilion was horrible. No it was worse than that. It was a huge embarrassment.
One of the comments I had was along the lines of "put up a new pavilion and it will just get vandalised."
As already stated I don't necessarily believe this to be true and it's up to all of us to report vandalism.
One of the phrases I absolutely detest to justify vandalism is "there's nothing for us to do." The trustees provided an outdoor table tennis table. This got vandalised and destroyed to such an extent that it had to be removed on safety grounds. Very often the vandals want to destroy facilities and then use those words "there isn't anything for us to do" as if that justifies what they have done.
My sons and now my grandchildren always have/had so much to do that there was little time to think, let alone misbehave. There is so much to do in our village that using those words "nothing for us to do" is just an excuse for vandalising things.
I also got some comments about my complaints about being shouted at on North Norfolk Railway. One reader suggested we were being too precious and had been doing something wrong anyway.
There were comments along the lines of "these people are volunteers."
Well as a volunteer in a number of areas, I do not accept that being a volunteer gives you the right to be rude. These people missed the opportunity to explain about the history of the railway to our grandchildren, but all they were interested in was shouting because they thought we were somewhere we shouldn't have been.
Volunteering isn't an excuse for rudeness.
On a more pleasant note, I thought I would include today the photos of the youngsters who took part in this years library reading challenge. I took these at the presentation event in Hethersett Library where the chair of the Friends of Hethersett Library Group David Bills gave out the certificates.
David referred to me as "Mr Hethersett." I think he deserves that accolade more them myself for all the work he has put in over many years on behalf of the village - much of which goes unnoticed.