Cost of car boot ‘sabotage’ cleanup revealed

The clearing up Gloucester car boot from rusty nails after a suspected sabotage attempt has cost the taxpayer £25,000.

Thousands of dangerous rusty nails were spread across the Hempsted Meadows site meaning it was unable to open on Sunday, July 20 under its new owners.

The site has since been cleared of the nails which could have inflicted severe damage on children, pets, adults and vehicles.

And the cleanup operation cost Gloucester City Council around £25,000 and the car boot went ahead as planned over the weekend.

The operator of Gloucester’s new car boot sale has expressed its “huge gratitude to all the buyers and sellers” who made the first market such a success.

“Customers have voted with their feet,” Capital Boot Sales said.

Extra space had to be found for people who had items for sale because far more than expected turned up, according to a social media post by the City Council.

“The opening should have taken place last weekend, but had to be postponed following the discovery of thousands of rusty nails scattered across the site,” the post reads.

“It’s believed it may have been a sabotage attempt, and Gloucestershire Police has appealed for anyone with information or dashcam footage to come forward as soon as possible.

“As owners of the land, Gloucester City Council has had to spend in the region of £25,000 scaling up security measures, repairing fences and removing the nails from a wide area of the site to make it safe for visitors.”

The suspected sabotage has been roundly condemned in the city with sympathy for new operators Capital Car Boot Sales, who won the tender to run the market.

Gloucester City Council leader Jeremy Hilton (LD, Kingsholm and Wotton) previously said: “Make no mistake, this was an incredibly dangerous act of vandalism, and the consequences could have been disastrous.

“It beggars belief that someone felt they could put people wanting to enjoy themselves at a new Sunday morning family car boot sale at so much risk.”