MEMBERS of KADS Theatre are concerned about a rise in vandalism at the theatre’s veranda.

Originally built as a church in 1928 the theatre is a heritage-listed building owned by the City of Kalamunda.

KADS Theatre president Fi Livings said the vandalism has caused significant damage to the veranda.

“Basically, what they’ve done is they’ve set fires on the veranda, smoked cigarettes and put the butts through the gaps of the veranda floor and burnt the wood floor,” she said.

“They’ve put ice cream all over the windows and every day there’s rubbish.

“Now we’re having tables and chairs taken from other areas of the mall and put on the veranda.

“They’ve put holes in the roof, torn down blinds, broken the balustrade, which we had to get fixed two or three times, and the back door, where the scene dock is, has been broken a couple of times.”

The theatre is run by volunteers, who have to devote a lot of their time to maintenance.

“Audiences don’t really see it because we make sure it’s clean and tidy before they come, but it’s a lot of work every day,” Ms Livings said.

“It died down for about a year and then in the last 18 months, it’s ramped up again really badly.”

Ms Livings said they have contacted the police and the city to assist with the issue.

“They came and said there’s not really anything they can do as we have no footage of the vandalism,” she said.

“We asked (the city) if we could put security cameras in, get some CCTV and they said, no, we couldn’t.

“I would like to enclose that whole veranda and make it secured so not everyone can get into it. But for starters, I just would like to get CCTV going so we’ve got something that we can actually show the police when it happens.”

A spokesperson from the City of Kalamunda said that the city is aware of reports of vandalism and takes incidents of this nature seriously.

“As the owner of this heritage-listed facility, the city has been liaising with KADS Theatre to understand the issues being experienced and will increase routine ranger patrols of the area where operationally possible, while continuing to work with WA Police regarding any reported anti-social behaviour,” the spokesperson said.

“The installation of CCTV at the site has been considered previously; however, there are currently no plans to install CCTV.

“The use of CCTV is assessed on a case-by-case basis, taking into account factors such as effectiveness, operational requirements, privacy considerations and the circumstances of each location.”

For Ms Livings, preserving the theatre is important for the community.

“We’ve got people who’ve been coming to the theatre for 30 years to see shows,” she said.

“We really want to preserve it. We’ve done so much work on the inside – new carpets, new stage floor, new lighting. It’s just the outside that’s pretty abysmal.”