Doors smashed, windows broken, cupboards ransacked.
That’s what volunteers discovered had happened to the kiosk in Glen Gardens, a community hub in Heworth.
The vandals struck on Saturday night (30 August). And they could hardly have done more damage.
Julie Couttie, chair of Friends of Glen Gardens, was called over to see what had happened at 8am on Sunday.
“It was absolutely awful. The glass windows smashed, the doors smashed – the door into the little kitchen was propped open.
“It was awful, because it feels like it’s your own place. It was devastating. Smashed up inside. They’ve really gone to town.”
They even poured cleaning fluid over the floor.
Julie says the perpetrators first broke the toilet window to try to gain entry before breaking the kitchen window to get in.
They smashed the teapot in the kitchen and ripped up a cupboard door – in the fruitless search, Julie believes, for money.
Julie praised both the police and City of York Council for their quick response.
Today (Tuesday) the “amazing” Friends of Glen Gardens volunteers have spent about four hours fixing up the battered kiosk so it can open again on Saturday.
And the response from the wider community “has been absolutely fantastic. We’ve had people wanting to give us money, people wanting to run a raffle, somebody wanted to do a GoFundMe page.
“People have just called past and given us a fiver or a tenner this morning.”
She said the community were very disappointed and saddened by what had happened.
“It’s used by young and old families. It’s used by people with special needs. Retirement forums come and use it, people from the local care home come.
“Some of those people that come, we might be the only people they speak to that day. That’s what they feel. It’s a real place to come and sit, have a cup of tea. We don’t charge – it’s donations only.
“If somebody comes, it’s cash only. If somebody comes with no money, we will give them a cup of tea and a cake.”
A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “We’ve attended and carried out crime scene investigations to support an investigation, which remains underway.
“Several other lines of enquiry including reviewing CCTV are also being completed.
“If anyone has information about the incident or captured anything suspicious on CCTV from the area at the time which they have yet to share with us, please call us on 101 and give reference number NYP-31082025-0106.”
