{"id":313697,"date":"2025-11-29T04:47:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T04:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/313697\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T04:47:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T04:47:14","slug":"weston-super-mare-street-art-graffitied-with-red-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/313697\/","title":{"rendered":"Weston-super-Mare street art graffitied with red crosses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

A number of works of art have been defaced with the cross <\/p>\n

A number of colourful murals on the same street have had red crosses painted over them. <\/p>\n

North Somerset Council said the damage to street art on Old Post Office Lane in Weston-super-Mare had been raised with police so “appropriate action” could be taken.<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrat council leader, Mike Bell, said he was “fed up” with “mindless” vandalism “masquerading as patriotism” in some cases.<\/p>\n

“These vandals are damaging property, making the town centre look worse and adding to the costs on hard-pressed businesses and councils who must clean it up,” he said. <\/p>\n

“My message is clear, this is not to be tolerated, and we will work with the police to bring culprits to justice,” he added. <\/p>\n

It is not known exactly when the paintings were defaced, but Avon and Somerset Police said the damage may have been carried out overnight from 24 to 25 November. <\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Councillor Mike Bell described the vandalism as “mindless”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the force said: “Officers understand those involved in a project to bring colour and creativity to that area of the town have been left deeply saddened by this incident of criminal damage.”<\/p>\n

A growing number<\/a> of St George and Union flags have been put up around England in recent months, with the groups responsible for installing them telling BBC News they were motivated by patriotism. <\/p>\n

And beyond flags, the red cross has been painted on road signs, street markings and buildings, with concerns from some the emblem is sowing division in communities. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Police said the matter is “being taken seriously” <\/p>\n

Neighbourhood police community support officer supervisor Jakub Pietroczuk said he wanted to “reassure the community that this matter is being taken seriously”. <\/p>\n

“Our aim is to identify the person responsible and ensure appropriate action is taken,” he added.<\/p>\n

“Acts of vandalism have no place in Weston-super-Mare, and we are committed to protecting the character of our town.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for North Somerset Council added: “We continue to be disappointed that areas are being vandalised with graffiti in this way – it is criminal damage.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC A number of works of art have been defaced with the cross A number of colourful murals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-313697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}