AN OUTBREAK of church vandalism across Mid Cheshire has inspired a stark response from police.

Officers are promising to clamp down on vandals who are trashing places of worship.

Their comments come after attacks on Middlewich's Queen Street United Reformed Church and St Bede's Roman Catholic Church on Church Lane, Weaverham, in the last two weeks - the most recent in a series of attacks on places of worship across the region.

Chief Insp Barry Travis, Western Area operations manager, was angry about the perpetrators of the attacks.

'Vandalism in churches of every denomination are especially shocking crimes because they show a blatant disregard for the memories and beliefs of innocent people,' he said.

'The offence is unacceptable and one which we will clamp down on.'

He believes the whole community has a role to play in safeguarding the region's places of worship: 'An ideal solution would be to place a police officer at every church site in the area. However, this is simply not possible and that's why partnership with the public is so important. There is a handful of people committing offences in church grounds and people who witness these incidents can help us a great deal by providing us with as much detail they can about the offender.'

Middlewich United Reformed Church was attacked some time between 6pm on Monday, June 20, and 9am the next day and it could have had very serious consequences. The Rev David Spence arrived at the church to find its gas box smashed and the pipe pulled away from the wall.

He said: 'If they'd carried on they could have fractured the pipe, which would have risked an explosion and serious injury.

'In fact, they loosened one of the joints. I performed some quick checks and realised I could tighten it - not standard priest practice, I hasten to add. I was a gas fitter when I was younger and took a gas engineering degree at university, so I knew what to check for. Otherwise, I'd have had to call British Gas out.'

On other occasions, the church has been less fortunate: 'Vandals ripped out our gutters over half-term, causing floods of water to get into the building and wet rot to set in. That cost us nearly £1,000.'

St Bede's in Weaverham has also been targeted when up to eight windows were smashed this week. Parish priest Father Anthony Cogliolo confirmed: 'It's a chronic problem for both St Mary's and ourselves. Our windows are often smashed and it's an annoyance and an expense. Over the years the cost has run into several thousand pounds, which we have to pay for using church funds.'

At St John's Parish Church in Hartford, vandals went on a wrecking spree in the graveyard late in May. About 15 gravestones were pushed over and several were smashed in a night-time rampage, which left relatives in despair.

Vandalism has been a recurring problem in the graveyard and the surrounding church property for some years with graffiti and smashed windows among the incidents police have been called in to investigate.

In late March, wardens of 700-year-old St Chad's in Over were horrified to discover vandals had torn a concrete slab from the building and covered walls with graffiti, while several similar attacks have been made on Wharton's Christ Church.