Campaigners in Sheffield have reported vandalism on outdoor signs as voters take to polling stations today to vote in the local elections.
Sheffield City Council has 28 of 84 seats up for election, whereby voters can choose one candidate for their ward. In Barnsley, there is a landmark ‘all-out’ local election, where voters can choose three per ward.
This week, campaign signs advocating votes for the Green Party have been found damaged around Sheffield, but acts of vandalism are happening nationally and are not exclusive to the Greens.
One Green Party member, who lives near Millhouses, contacted ShefNews to say that she had her sign damaged three times- she lives on a main road, so her sign is frequently seen.
She said: “We haven’t caught the people doing it. All the incidents were reported to the police but due to a lack of evidence they weren’t able to do anything.
“It hasn’t made me feel less safe but it may be different if we lived somewhere more secluded. It didn’t worry our seven-year-old either – instead he was trying to come up with schemes of how we might catch them.”
She said that other members in her local WhatsApp group were also targeted overnight on 18 April.
She said: “It made me feel more determined to want to have a sign. I am refusing to be intimidated. The message of the Green Party is something I believe in and want to proudly show with my garden sign.
“One of my signs only lasted 48 hours, but I feel like I’ve won the war of attrition as the fourth sign is still proudly standing on election day.”
Green Party member Joe Brindle, who lives in the Broomhill and Sharrow Vale ward, caught somebody in the act while out delivering leaflets.
Brindle said: “I actually caught someone stealing one of our placards.
“I was at another member’s house then I went round the corner to do some leafleting. A few minutes later a guy had a poster board in hand.
“I shouted at him to give it back and eventually he did, but he just nicked it.”
Sheffield Green Party said they have helped to replace damaged signs and still ‘encourage people to show their support’.