A DISGRACE

The subway cleaned up after a campaign by seven-year-old Pollyanna McIntosh-Hurst has been severely vandalised again.

In the past few days offensive graffiti has been sprayed on walls, and signs ripped down in the subway running between Gloucester railway station and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Now Pollyanna's father, Eddie, is calling for someone to take responsibility for the underpass, to ensure the area does not fall back into the state it was in before his daughter took action.

Pollyanna, who lives in Oxfordshire, visits her father during school holidays, and when she was here at half term she saw evidence the vandals were back already. She had said the subway gave visitors to the city the wrong impression of Gloucester.

She collected a 276 signature petition asking for it to be cleaned, and, thanks to donations from the Pied Piper Appeal and the Chelsea Building Society, the subway was repainted.

Now the new vandalism at the site has disheartened Eddie, who lives near the subway on Great Western Road.

He said: "Last week were trying to arrange to get a system put in place to keep the subway monitored.

"However, already there is graffiti on the walls and the advertising board put up on the wall has been ripped off.

"No one wants to take responsibility for the site, they just think that people will accept the state of it, but I am not willing to do that.

"I do not want Pollyanna to come and see that the subway has gone back to being as bad as it ever was. She is still an innocent and would be devastated."

Ron Morrice, administrator for the Pied Piper Appeal, said: "I'm very, very angry. These signs were only put up a matter of weeks ago. They were very nice and they directed people to the new children's hospital.

"The sign's about 50ft long and was screwed to the wall, so they must have tried very hard to pull it down.

"All I can say is that it's mindless vandalism."

The city railway station is leased by Network Rail to Wales and West Trains, although the subway is not included in the lease.

A major overhaul of the tunnel is being planned next year by Network Rail and Gloucestershire County Council.