HADLEIGH has been left with a trail of broken windows and damaged property after vandals caused mayhem over the Easter period.The problems for residents began on Saturday evening when a brick outbuilding at a house in Angel Street was broken into sometime between 4.

HADLEIGH has been left with a trail of broken windows and damaged property after vandals caused mayhem over the Easter period.

The problems for residents began on Saturday evening when a brick outbuilding at a house in Angel Street was broken into sometime between 4.30pm and 9.30am the following morning.

Freezer food, wine glasses, washing powder, lager, and red and white wine – worth a total of £220 – was stolen.

The windows of homes in the High Street were smashed some time between 6pm on Sunday night and 9am on Monday morning and during the same period concrete pillars were removed and broken from walls outside houses in Aldham Road.

There have also been reports that greenhouses, sheds and water butts on allotments in Ann Beaumont Way were damaged, though police were unable to confirm this.

Hadleigh's retained fire crew was called to deal with an abandoned Ford Fiesta, which police on a routine patrol discovered ablaze near Pykenham Way just after 1am on Monday.

Inspector Lincoln Pratt, in charge of Hadleigh sector policing, said he had been disappointed by the spate of damage and promised that all incidents would be thoroughly investigated and would include looking at CCTV footage.

"We have in recent weeks provided more high profile policing than there had been in Hadleigh town and the local area."

Insp Pratt said a working group, set up to plan a community safety strategy, had held its first meeting to look at longer term solutions to problems of arson and criminal damage in the town.

The group will now be collecting information from other parts of the country on schemes which have been successful and is due to meet again in May.

The aim will be to devise a workable strategy for the next two or three years, he said.