A Leicester Mercury summer holiday campaign to crack down on school vandalism has achieved a 100% record.

Deputy Editor Jeremy Clifford reported that during the seven-week campaign, not one of the six schools signed up was broken into. That compares with last year when they suffered £60,000 of damage.

The Mercury got involved after it found five schools in Braunstone village were joining forces to spend thousands of pounds employing private security patrols while buildings were left vulnerable during the school holidays.

The campaign aimed to galvanise community action against attacks and also provided a free telephone hotline for the public to report incidents. This attracted 200 calls alerting the security firm patrolling the schools to any potential trouble.

And 200 specially-made baseball caps were distributed to kids in Braunstone where the campaign was run.

Mr Clifford said: “We are now organising a city-wide meeting involving the council, police and security firm to see if the campaign can be broadened across the whole of Leicester.”

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