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Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club, in Rougham Road, left ‘incredibly disappointed’ after new retaining wall graffitied




A town rugby club has been left ‘incredibly disappointed’ after offensive graffiti was daubed across a new wall.

Expletives were sprayed across the new retaining wall which was built just under two weeks ago for the car park at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club, off Rougham Road.

The wall was paid for by sponsors of the club while work to try and remove it in time for a women’s cup game this evening was undertaken by other sponsors.

A new retaining wall at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club, in Rougham Road, was vandalised with graffiti on Monday evening. Picture: Ross Waldron
A new retaining wall at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club, in Rougham Road, was vandalised with graffiti on Monday evening. Picture: Ross Waldron

A spokesperson said the venue was not just a rugby club, but a community facility – NHS workers use it as an overflow car park – while many children are also on site throughout the week.

They said: “The wall was thanks to the generosity of sponsors, so we’re just incredibly disappointed.

“So much work goes into providing the best facility we can for the community, not just the rugby club. We work so hard – the majority of which is voluntary – and on a shoestring budget.

A new retaining wall at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club, in Rougham Road, was vandalised with graffiti on Monday evening. Picture: Ross Waldron
A new retaining wall at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club, in Rougham Road, was vandalised with graffiti on Monday evening. Picture: Ross Waldron

“I think everyone’s really disappointed. Very frustrated and very disappointed.”

The spokesperson said the club has had to allocate time and resources to resolving the issue which, with the match tonight and its other functions, has compounded frustrations.

They paid tribute to the two sponsors who have helped to remove the graffiti.

Maclin Group, a new sponsor this season, provided some graffiti removal spray and wipes free of charge, while long term sponsors and members D&G Mechanical Solutions Ltd pressure washed it this morning.

“We are eternally grateful to them both,” the spokesperson said.

In a statement issued on the club’s website yesterday, it pleaded with people not to vandalise property.

It said the club was a community facility with limited resources, and acts such as these strain its funds.

The rugby club spokesperson said it had also been informed West Suffolk Council would help to remove the graffiti.

A council spokesperson said: “The graffiti in question is very offensive and West Suffolk Council is working with the owners to remove it as quickly as possible.”

They added, while the only graffiti the council is responsible for removing is on its own property, if other vandalism is offensive it will work with the owners of targeted properties to remove it as quickly as possible.