REPEATED vandalism at St Timothy's Church in Liden has prompted one of its church wardens to quit.

The church, which operates under a Church of England and Methodist partnership, has been the subject of vandalism on several occasions this year.

And the latest incident, in which vandals climbed on the roof, scuffing felt lining, and ripping electrical cables from their fixings has made up church warden Dianne Mills' mind that enough is enough.

Mrs Mills, 55, a church warden for more than eight years, is to tender her resignation at the annual general meeting in May.

She said: "It's just unbelievable that people can do this sort of thing time and again and the more people tell them to stop it, the more they carry on.

"We have had an electrician to come and run safety checks on the place and have new lights fitted to the rear of the church.

"Children use the front doors as goalposts and kick footballs against the church. We have had windows smashed before and it's a constant battle."

The church has also experienced problems with graffiti and drug use.

The vandalism, which will cost at least £200 to fix, is the latest in a long line of trouble at the church, which is situated at the Liden Centre in the Grundys.

On Christmas Eve vandals smashed windows and splattered white paint on the rear door of the building causing more than £750 in damage, and during harvest festival weekend in 2001 eight windows were pushed in.

Now the church is considering applying for government funding to install CCTV cameras, in an attempt to solve the problems.

Coun Peter Brown (Lab, Dorcan) has indicated Government funding for CCTV cameras could be available from next April.

The councillor has successfully lobbied for £25,000 for cameras to monitor the Eldene Centre, another area targeted by vandals.

Tony Knapp, 55, vicar of St Timothy's for two years, said: "The main concern is one of intimid-ation, especially for the older members of our congregation.

"We recently had a meeting in the building when all of a sudden there was this big bang. We would prefer not to have confrontation, but feel like these people should have some sort of respect for the church building.

"I sympathise and realise they must have somewhere to play football, but every time damage is caused we have to pay for it. It's also a fair old drop if a child was to fall from the roof."