A vandal left a ‘sinister’ ransom note after destroying a pedestrian crossing, blaming a local council for an unknown decision made 12 years ago.
The crossing, near two schools in Tonbridge in Kent, has been damaged eight times in recent years.
Councillors believe one perpetrator could be behind all of them.
The council has spent around £35,000 fixing the damage to the crossing, which hundreds of schoolchildren and pensioners cross every day.
But councillors from Kent County Council (KCC) have been left bemused, saying they have no clue what the begrudged local is so furious about.
One said the diced crossing and strange ‘ransom note’ looked like an ‘art installation’.
The note on the crossing in the Cage Green area of Tonbridge, which was discovered surrounded by cut-up plastic and constructed using cutout letters from magazines or newspapers, read: ‘Yo KCC this is the last of the button.
‘This cost yo[u] big time. Yo[u] know what yo[u] did in 2012.’
In the past, vandalism of the crossing has included superglue to jam the mechanism and a note saying ‘F*** KCC’.
Councillors are now encouraging the vandal to come forward speak to the council about their grievances rather than costing the taxpayer money.
Mark Hood, a Green Party councillor for both (KCC) and Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, said another ‘crude’ note had been left once before.
‘We’ve had a whole spate of vandalism on this crossing,’ the 56-year-old explained.
‘We’ve tried to work out the motivation… It’s like a ransom note.
‘We removed the sound from the crossing because we thought it might be triggering someone.
‘We put CCTV on the crossing and worked with the police – but they still decided to attack it.
‘I’m trying to tally together how many times this has happened and the thousands of pounds this has cost.
‘I’d say it’s about eight times this has happened at this crossing.
‘The person has obviously got a grudge against the Council, but none of us know what it’s about.
‘I’ve only been a councillor since 2021, so it pre-dates me and I think all of the officers who are dealing with this.
‘Our Council is on the brink of bankruptcy. We can’t continue to renew the panels.
‘It’s thousands of pounds each time.’
Cllr Hood said the average price of replacing the crossing’s panels was £3,500, and that as many as eight have been damaged at the Cage Green crossing, as well as a few others.
This means the council may have forked out as much as £35,000 to fix them.
‘We may have to downgrade the crossing,’ father-of-two Cllr Hood said.
‘That will not give protection to disabled people. It’s a real concern.
‘Hundreds of schoolchildren and elderly people use the crossing each day and, at the moment, there are no lights.
‘We have had a crude message scrawled into the gunk applied to the panel, saying: ‘F*** KCC’.
‘The fact that someone came and diced up the panel… The sinister message is underneath another [panel] which is intact.
‘It’s like an art installation.
‘Sometimes they attack it with super glue to jam the mechanism.’
Cllr Hood added that if they knew what the perpetrator was so angered about, they would be able to work with them.
He urged the disgruntled resident to come forward and speak to them.
‘We get you’re angry, with the Council, but if you have a problem, come to us,’ Cllr Hood said, addressing the mystery assailant.
‘The way to communicate with us is not by smashing up a pedestrian crossing.
‘It just seems to be their way of getting back at the council – but it’s a drain on every taxpayer in Kent.
‘We are having to pay for them out of the highways budget.
‘Come and talk to us – that’s what we are here for.’
