A COMMUNITY association is appealing for help after its centre suffered the latest in a series of vandal attacks.

Panes of glass were smashed at the centre in Front Street, Sherburn Hill, at the weekend, and Sherburn Hill Community Association officials are urging villagers to keep an eye on the building, and to give the police information about the culprits.

The attack, which has left a bill of £250 to repair the windows, is the ninth in the past 18 months.

Mostly this has consisted of individual windows being broken, but in January all the building's drainpipes were pulled down.

The association committee, which is working to develop the centre and hopes to win funding to refurbish it, says the cost of the damage is rising.

Secretary Kathleen Brown said: "One of the windows in the large hall was broken and they must have been on the flat roof and broken about five little panes of glass.

"They had also been trying to force their way into a back room that's used as a dressing room. We have more boarded up windows than we have windows with glass in at the moment.

"Whoever is doing it must think it is a huge joke, but it isn't to us because we haven't got the money to keep on repairing things.

"I don't see what reason anyone can have for vandalising the building. We have just come to the end of our tether."

Mrs Brown said that the building was one of the few facilities left in the village and that the committee was working hard to make it a success.

A Durham Police spokesman said: "We have had a report that panes of glass have been broken at the centre, with an approximate value of £250 and we are making enquiries.

"The officers who work the patch are aware of an almost continual problem of youths hanging around with not much to do. We will do all we can to prevent this happening again, but you can't keep the place under constant surveillance."

Anyone with information should call Durham Police on 0191-386 4222.