East Sussex football club's clubhouse destroyed by vandals

The clubhouse at The Crouch, Bramber Lane, was broken into around 9.20pm and a number of items were stolen from inside, police said.

The football club tweeted photos of the vandalism, with the caption: “Yet again we’ve been a victim of crime, vandalism, breaking and entering along with theft and our volunteers are left to pick up the pieces!”

Police say enquires are ongoing and anyone who saw what happened or who has any other information is asked to report to police online or by calling 101 quoting serial 355 of 31/07.

In July of last year, Seaford Town were looking to build a perimeter fence around the Crouch Football Ground to prevent weekly episodes of vandalism.

Tom Walker, chairmen of the club until July of this year, said at the time: "The Crouch is a bit of a vandalism hotspot. Since I was a kid it has never stopped, because of the open nature of the park, it’s become a place where kids congregate and it's always been subject to vandalism.”

The club had a proposal accepted by the town council to build a 6 ft perimeter fence - giving them an enclosed pitch like the majority of other teams across Sussex and Surrey who play at Step 6 in the football pyramid.

Residents in Seaford have claimed the erection of a perimeter fence around its ground would ‘encourage’ rather then prevent vandalism.

Locals state that Crouch Gardens is an open area and many residents believe the football club’s plans for a fence will cut off this space to the general public.

In response, Tom said: “It’s a strange one really because I have never understood that side of the argument. What we would be doing is creating an area so people would know they were entering a football ground and therefore respect it more.

“In wide open spaces people can hide more, but in a closed ground we would have CCTV and then there would be a large plot of land outside which is no less dangerous then the five alleyways into the park.”