MINDLESS vandals have trashed a Wrexham community centre for the third time in just a few months.

New Broughton Community Centre on Bersham Road was targeted between some point on Wednesday evening and Friday morning, when Cllr Nigel Williams arrived at the centre to find smashed windows and a trail of devastation inside. He said this latest act was particularly demoralising as the culprits seemed to have had nothing else on their minds other than mindless destruction.

Cllr Williams said: "I arrived at the centre at around 9am this morning (Friday) to find three smashed windows.

"It's very demoralising, because at least the first time it was broken into (three months ago), they had some sort of plan in place because they stole things like copper piping and a microwave.

"All's they've done this time is smash the lighting tubes in the ceiling and all the Christmas decorations that we were going to give away to charities have been smashed up and scattered all over the floor."

For the last five years, the community centre has been funded by Broughton Community Council and managed by a committee, of which Cllr Williams is the Chair. A survey carried out by the community council last year determined that around £70k-£90k of work was needed to bring the building back up to scratch; an amount neither council is able to afford.

He added: "When we (Management Committee) took the centre on five years ago we had several local groups using the centre, including a playgroup four days a week, but over time those numbers have began to dwindle, and there's now just one there, which is an indoor bowls club.

"The community council decided recently they can no longer keep funding the centre and also the cost of repairs following the previous acts of vandalism.

"As the only user group, the bowling club have been informed of the decision, and the keys will be going back to Wrexham council today.

"It's not just because of the vandalism; it's costing us about £15,000 a year to run the centre and as the user group numbers became less and less, it became less and less viable."

Cllr Williams went on to explain that despite holding plenty of fundraising events over the years, including bbq's and parties, there just doesn't seem to be an appetite in the local community to keep the centre running.

A spokesman for Wrexham Council said: "We can confirm we will be taking receipt of the keys for New Broughton Community Centre in the very near future."

North Wales Police confirmed the break in had been reported to them at around 10.45am on Friday morning and that damage had been caused to the inside of the building, but there no CCTV available to assist officers.

A spokesman said: "Specialist officers are currently investigating the incident and I would appeal to anyone with any information to come forward, using crime reference X106039."