A DEVELOPER behind the planned regeneration of Botley’s West Way centre has pleaded with a mysterious vandal to stop their campaign of graffiti.

The latest incident saw the words ‘Botley twinned with Fukushima’ and ‘50 years of heritage and community lost’ scrawled in yellow paint across walls and boarded up units over the weekend.

The Botley Development Company, who purchased the site from the Vale of White Horse District Council in January, has now put up a sign saying it is currently in discussions with local schools and community groups to use the area to display community-led art work.

In a message seemingly aimed at the anonymous vandal, the sign reads: “Please do not spoil their canvas.”

The beleaguered shopping centre has been the target of a series of similar attacks in recent weeks criticising a scheme which intends to turn the area into a mixed residential and retail development.

The graffiti, which has previously been claimed by a person operating under the pseudonym Waldo Skipsey, comes just weeks after preparatory work finally began on the long-delayed project to bulldoze existing buildings and build new shops, a hotel and student accommodation.

The land sale for the development was finally completed earlier this year which had been seen as the main stumbling block preventing the development from getting underway.

However, since the original agreement to sell in 2012, plans for the works have been changed numerous times with many of the original shops having closed down in the mean time.

Last month work to provide a temporary home to some of the retailers at the centre began.

The developer has said this month work will continue to with the erection of hoarding along Chapel Way, around the Grant Thornton building, to allow partial demolition of the Grant Thornton building to commence.

A statement on the developer’s website read: “The upcoming works, including the removal of a former safe within the Elms Court building and partial demolition of the Grant Thornton building, are likely to generate noise and more vehicle movements to and from the site.

“SDC [our construction partner]will be working to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum.”