=SOUTHAMPTON residents have been left counting the cost of a nasty vandalism attack on their community centre.

The building, in Olive Road Coxford, has had half the roof ripped off, tiles and a window smashed and an outside store room burnt out, causing what chairman Tony Challis believes is thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Mr Challis, 36, said the centre has been a target for vandalism for some time, but added that this was the first time so much damage had been done in a single incident.

He said: "It's just so disheartening, because it's a charity-based, volunteer-run community centre - all of us run it voluntarily.

"It's going to cost thousands to repair it all because the outside store cupboard is all burnt out and it's affected the electrics in the main hall itself. I think the bingo club has lost a lot of stuff that was in a cupboard in the outside store cupboard."

Mr Challis said the community centre had once been a popular meeting place for locals, but that many groups were now starting to avoid the facility as a result of the vandalism attacks.

He said: "We're starting to lose them because of this.

"People just don't want to come down here any more.

"We need to try and appeal to the public for their help - this is the third time this year this has happened.

"We're hoping that we can get it cleared up straightaway so that we don't have to close down, but where does the money come from? It's a bit of a pain to say the least."

Insp David Harrison from Shirley Police said they were aware of problems in the area.

He said: "We know about some of the incidents of vandalism at the community centre and one of our beat officers has been liaising with them.

"We've just done a Crimestoppers leaflet drop to encourage people if they're a bit reluctant to name people and I insisted that vandalism was one of the things on the leaflet."