Source: Express & Star News Paper, November 30, 2000
SMETHWICK, ENGLAND: Vandals have smashed down the walls of a US$1.6 million temple and community centre being built in Smethwick, causing damage put at $16,000. Community leaders have condemned the “misguided, weak minded” thugs and say they are very much hurt by the attack on the Durga Bhawan site in Spon Lane south. The vandals used scaffolding poles stored on the site to demolish the six-foot-high, partially-built walls of the Hindu temple last night. It followed the theft of tools worth $8,000 from the building site two months ago. Work on the building started in August, and the Hindu Cultural Resource Sandwell, which spent ten years planning the community facility, hoped to open in August, 2001. The temple and community center complex will house exhibition, conference, wedding, leisure and sports facilities, a day centre for the elderly, a youth wing, and counselling and legal services. Classes will also be run in a range of subjects, including History, English, music, languages and literacy.