'Idiot' vandals putting future of popular Coventry pub at risk...

[dutchman]

The Glade in Willenhall has had an overhaul - but the manager says a 'handful of idiots' keep vandalising it



The manager of a city pub has urged vandals to leave the building alone as it prepares for a grand reopening after lockdown.

The Glade in Willenhall is an important pub for the local community, but manager Mick Ryan is concerned the brewery could get fed up if local kids continue to vandalise it.

Mick has been manager of the pub on Middle Ride for over two years and has been working hard to get it open after a difficult year caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

He says the brewery has spent thousands of pounds refurbishing the pub, but he admits their willingness to invest could disappear if the Glade carries on being targeted by what he calls a "small handful of idiots".

Mick told CoventryLive: "We've done the pub up, ahead of it reopening. But we've got young kids, teenagers, ripping posters off the wall, digging their names into benches, writing graffiti on the walls, burning the benches and generally littering all over the place.

"We've also had kids throwing eggs at the window - it's childish and you think to yourself: 'why?'

"The pub has been really rundown and the brewery have spent a lot of money on it, getting it refurbished and done up.

"But, like every area, we've got a handful of idiots who just don't respect anything - it's local kids who are bored, they've got nothing to do.

"But we need people to respect the pub otherwise the brewery will just say 'it's not worth the hassle'.

"We also live above pub so it's not nice that our home is being targeted."

Willenhall is a close knit community but due to the changing nature of the pub industry down the years there are not many drinking establishments available to local people.

Pubs such as The Winnall and The White Bear have both closed in the last ten years, meaning the Glade and the Willenhall Social Club are the only places where locals can get together for a drink.

[dutchman]

The Glade has been a magnet for troublemakers ever since it first opened. It was not part of the estate originally and it's arguable whther it should ever have been granted planning permission.