TEENAGE parties have been banned at a village hall after “mindless vandals” left a trail of destruction last weekend.

Partygoers smashed a bathroom mirror, pulled soap dispensers off the wall and left “obscene” graffiti in the newly renovated toilets at Mistley Village Hall in Furze Hill.

A special changing mat for disabled youngsters was also damaged during the event on Saturday night and broken glass left littered in the car park.

Martin Rayner, chairman of Mistley Parish Council, which owns the hall, said: “It was a farewell party to a teenager.

“Unfortunately things got a bit out of hand and the toilets got quite badly damaged.

“A mirror in the gents was smashed – they are newly refurbished toilets, which cost £15,000.

“Soap dispensers were smashed off the wall and one of those automatic air fresheners was smashed.

“There was obscene graffiti all over the wall of the disabled toilet.

“A wrap of white powder and a rolled up train ticket was also found, which have been taken away by police.

“We have great concerns about this.”

The damage was discovered by a member of the hall’s management committee, which runs the hall for the council.

Iris Peacock, chairman of the committee, said they have now decided to ban all teenage parties.

“I’m absolutely gutted,” she said.

“I’ve got that hall back from nothing to what it is now.

“We had got new curtains, carpets and got the floor done before the fire in 2012.

“After the fire it had to be refurbished all the way through and after that we raised money and got the new storage, disabled toilet and new lobby.

“Since then we had the new toilets refurbished and changed the layout.

“To me this is mindless vandalism.”

She added: “We are not going to have any teenage parties for the time being now until we can get this sorted out.

“I don’t think we have a choice.

“They have spoiled it for everybody else.

“At the moment I don’t know what we are going to do – it makes it hard to trust people.

“If we don’t do anything it sends the message you can get away with it at Mistley Village Hall, but you can’t.”

Police were called to the hall at 12.50am on Sunday, April 23 to reports of a number of people outside threatening to cause criminal damage.

A spokesman said officers attended and gave advice.