St Leonards Vote Leave posters '˜defaced by council worker'

A Vote Leave supporter has accused a council worker of defacing his posters in St Leonards on Monday (June 13).
Someone attempted to paint over Bernard Rayner's Vote Leave postersSomeone attempted to paint over Bernard Rayner's Vote Leave posters
Someone attempted to paint over Bernard Rayner's Vote Leave posters

Hastings and Rye UKIP chairman Bernard Rayner’s posters in his garden overlooking Sedlescombe Road North have been covered in white paint.

The Brexit campaigner was told by an eye-witness a man in Hastings Borough Council (HBC) uniform was painting the posters at around 10.30am.

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HBC denies the accusation claiming it has no evidence it was one of its employees but Mr Rayner is disgusted anyone would take political disagreements that far.

“There will be people with different views and everyone is entitled to their views but these are just militants,” he said.

“I’m just disgusted with it, totally disgusted. It’s the fear factor, they must be frightened.

“I have left them up on purpose now. Everybody’s been quite good but there’s this little faction and if you’re in a council vehicle in council uniform, it’s not on.”

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Mr Rayner’s two 10ft by 5ft signs, worth £40, in the trees in his garden on the Upper Church Road junction had been up for about a week before he noticed they had been vandalised on Saturday morning (June 11).

He thought nothing of it until finding out from a friend who saw the man ‘painting’ the signs using a large pole with a paintbrush on the end on Monday morning.

The friend was adamant the vandal was wearing HBC uniform with a high-vis jacket and drove off in a HBC van.

Mr Rayner said his friend is not even voting in the referendum which he claims makes her unbiased.

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The local authority told him they had no record of one of its employees doing it nor any trackers on its vans to check where they had been.

“We have taken these allegations very seriously,” a HBC spokesman said.

“We cannot find any evidence of it being either our own staff, or our contractors.

“We have not got a detailed description of the alleged culprit, nor any vehicle registration number.

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“We would of course be happy to assist the police with any enquiries they wish to make into these allegations.”

Police are investigating the damage which is believed to have happened between 7pm on Friday (June 10) and 10.30am on Saturday.

Anyone who saw anything suspicious or who has any other information is asked to {mailto:email [email protected]|email [email protected]} or phone 101, quoting serial 657 of 11/06.

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