A RENTON man has slammed the yobs who vandalised a community heritage centre in the village.

Duncan Thomson from the Robert the Bruce Heritage Centre had a painter on the scene within half an hour of discovering the “shocking” graffiti on the centre, located in the former waiting room at the village’s railway station.

He said: “We discovered if we left the clean up job for a few days they would just do it again.

“If we nip it in the bud and clean it up straight away, that seems to deter them from doing it again.”

Mr Thomson said he was “pretty gutted” to discover the spray painting – which he said may have been partly down to there being little for young people to do in the area.

West Dunbartonshire Community Party councillor Jim Bollan said he was appalled to hear of the vandalism to the building, which was the brain child of the historical arts and crafts group the Strathleven Artizans.

Councillor Bollan, who represents the Leven ward, told the Reporter: “I was delighted at the prompt non-judgemental response from the Artizans and the local community, ensuring the graffiti was quickly removed.”

Fellow Leven ward councillor Ian Dickson added: “It was really disappointing to learn of this pointless vandalism recently.

“It is a testament to the strength of community in Renton and really heartening to hear of local residents coming together to remove the graffiti and return the building back to its original state.

“I trust the police will investigate this incident thoroughly and I applaud the efforts from the community.”

A ScotRail spokesperson said: “We deplore vandalism of any kind. It has no place on Scotland’s Railway.”

Railway cops were alerted to the incident just before 1pm on Sunday, November 7.

A British Transport Police spokesperson said: “Enquiries into this incident are ongoing, however no arrests have been made.”