Historical World War Two site vandalised

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

A historical World War Two site has been vandalised by a graffiti artist.

Cllr Louise Emery has now reported the matter to North Wales Police but says she’s angry the artist has spray painted a building at the old Royal Artillery Coastal Gunnery School on Llandudno’s Great Orme.

The building has been painted with the words ‘Robo’ and features a depiction of Nintendo’s famous Italian plumber ‘Mario’ looking up to a police officer closely inspecting a mushroom.

The artwork has been signed with the tag ‘M.M’.

“I often go for walks to the gun site. It was such a lovely evening I thought I’d take the kids to the beach, and I just couldn’t believe what I saw,” said Cllr Emery.

Scheduled monument

“Clearly the guy’s got talent, but it is in completely the wrong place. It is recognised as a scheduled monument.

“It is such an important site, and to do that there… I was just speechless. The buildings are the responsibility of the country park, CADW, and ultimately the council. I sit on the Great Orme Management Committee, and we will be discussing this at the next meeting and looking at ways of how to remove it.”

She added: “It is recognised as an important monument. It dates back to the Second World War. It was the Royal Artillery Coastal Gunnery School where soldiers were trained to fire big guns out to sea, in case of a German invasion of the UK.

“It so silly as clearly the person who has done that clearly has talent.”

A spokeswoman for CADW commented: “It is a criminal offence to damage such an important protected monument, and we are formally investigating this with the relevant authorities.

“Removing the graffiti will require authorisation from CADW to avoid any inadvertent damage.”

North Wales Police and Conwy County Council were all contacted for a comment.