A SPATE of anti-social behaviour has left businesses in the city centre counting the costs as windows have been smashed by vandals.
At least five shops on Winchester's High Street had damaged windows which were awaiting repair this week.
The most recent case of window smashing happened on Friday evening, and was caught by one shop on CCTV, which showed a man kicking the window pane.
Haji Ashiq, shop manager at Cell Repair, said it was not the first time the window had been broken, and that they had suffered the same vandalism the week before.
He said: "It is not good for business. The high street is already down, we are just surviving. We are paying high rents and rates to be in the high street. We are not allowed to have shutters, what can we do?"
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Mr Ashiq said it was more than just the cost of replacing the glass. The second incident has seen them have to wait days for the replacement pane due to supply issues and the smashed glass was putting off people from entering his shop.
"It is not just about the window, it's about the look," he said.
Other businesses that had windows smashed include FatFace, which had two windows smashed overnight on March 18, and Mint Velvet, which had a window smashed on March 25. Ecco was also displaying a smashed pane last week, as well as Pret A Manager.
Businesses in the city centre pay money to be part of Winchester Business Improvement District, a not-for-profit organisation that invests collectively in local improvements.
Paul Spencer, executive director at Winchester BID, encouraged people to keep reporting the incidents to police.
He said: "Vandalism is unacceptable and our local businesses should not have to deal with this. It is always important that incidents like these are reported to the police."
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He said Winchester BID manages the city’s Business Crime Reduction Partnership, an accredited organisation bringing together businesses, the police and the city council’s Community Safety Partnership to help make the city centre safer and prevent crime.
Mr Spencer added: "These recent incidents will be raised with our partners so we can discuss how we can best work together – businesses, police, the local authorities and community – to help prevent more incidents like these in our city late at night and protect our businesses."
He said the Winchester BID Rangers work seven days a week to help reduce business crime and provide additional security, but they do not work at night. There is a radio link scheme that connects businesses with the city council’s CCTV control room where monitoring takes place 24/7.
Hampshire police said they had only received two reports of incidents, from FatFace and Mint Velvet.
They encouraged people to report incidents and also to come forward with information about these incidents by calling on 101, quoting 44220109372.
Business that would like to become part of the Winchester Business Crime Reduction Partnership, Shopwatch or Pubwatch should email enquiries@winchesterbid.co.uk
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