IRVINE Harbourside has been blighted following a spate of vandalism over the weekend.

First spotted on Saturday morning, the graffiti, appearing mainly in the form of unsightly tags, has appeared on different building and signs including the Maritime museum and on the walls of the toilets at Irvine Beach.

The vandalism comes just weeks after work was carried out to restore the toilets.

Billy Lamb, of Coastwatch, believes the offence may have been committed sometime on Friday night.

He told the Times: “It’s the first time that something like this has happened.

“The local residents have worked to try and raise the profile of the area. Then, people just come along and graffiti the area.

“It could make people think that it’s a run down area when it’s not.

“I’m absolutely disgusted by it.

“They’ve just used the surfaces as a blank canvas.

“It’s absolutely terrible to see.

“There’s a lot of CCTV cameras along there so hopefully they are able to find out who did it.”

The sign for the Maritime Museum was also targeted with blue spray paint.
The director of the museum, David Mann, expressed his surprise at the incident.

He said: “You can read the graffiti from quite a distance away.

“I don’t know why they do it. It wasn’t even particularly artistic.

“It’s really unusual and this must have been the first incident to occur in about 20 years.”