Campaigner slams 'brainless' vandals who leave basketball court littered with broken glass

Brian Banawich with the broken glass

A Greenfield-based Green campaigner has slammed 'brainless' vandals who he claims deliberately left the popular basketball court at Churchill playing fields strewn with broken glass.

Brian Banawich made the extremely dangerous discovery on Saturday morning and immediately reported it to Oldham Council and the police.

Mr Banawich told the Chronicle: "I was litter picking in Greenfield on Saturday morning and I came across an empty case of beer and what appeared to be at least a dozen beer bottles smashed all over the all weather basketball court at Churchill playing fields.

"It was obviously a deliberate act to make the court unplayable or injure youngsters playing basketball.

"In amongst the broken glass were several empty canisters of nitrous oxide.

"There's youthful hi-jinks and there is brainless, dangerous vandalism, and this is the latter. 

"I managed to remove most of the glass as a matter of urgency and have contacted the council to clean up the area as quickly as possible."

The council have responded and confirmed they are sending out a street cleaning team.

The police, meanwhile, confirmed to Mr Banawich that they passed the information to the local policing team.

"I'm just hoping the police can get on top of the issue as there have been previous incidents of beer bottles being smashed on the basketball and tennis courts at Churchill playing fields," added Mr Banawich. 

"It's obviously becoming a gathering point in the evenings for people intent on anti-social behaviour."

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