Cleckheaton Town Hall ram-raided

The incident happened at 2.38am when a Land Rover Discovery and a Mitsubishi Shogun, both stolen from the Bradford area yesterday, drove to the side of the town hall. The Land Rover was then used to crash into the building and the Shogun used by the suspects to make off.

The Land Rover was left at the scene and the Shogun was later recovered.

The suspects got into the building and it is believed they tried, unsuccessfully, to take the cashier counter.

Police said an investigation has been launched into the incident.

Detective Inspector Stef Wiseman of Kirklees CID, said: “We are appealing for any witnesses to the incident to get in contact. Even though this happened late at night it was in the middle of the town and will have caused significant disruption. If you saw or heard anything suspicious please contact CID on 101.”

Cleckheaton councillor Andrew Pinnock believed it would take a considerable length of time to repair the door that was broken into, adding: “What on earth they thought they were doing seems preposterous. The door is alarmed and would’ve alerted a lot of people in the process of doing this.

“This was not going to work because it would set off alarm bells ringing that, given the trouble they would’ve taken, by the time they got inside to where they thought the money was, they would have been caught in the act. I’m amazed that anybody thought it was a good idea.

“It doesn’t look like a professional job at all. It will cause untold nuisance for large numbers of people who use the Town Hall regularly. It will make difficult disabled access to the building. That’s one thing which will have a big impact.”