Police are investigating a hate crime in King Charles’ model town after racist and anti-Semitic graffiti was daubed on several buildings.
The offensive graffiti – which included the ‘n-word’ and a Nazi symbol – was sprayed on streets and in the children’s playground around the Great Field in Poundbury, Dorset, sometime between Wednesday and Thursday.
Poundbury is on Duchy of Cornwall land and was King Charles’ vision of an utopian idyll where private and affordable housing mix with boutique shops, places of work and services like schools and medical centres within walking distance.
With 2,320 homes, 4,600 residents and 240 businesses employing 2,400 people Poundbury was named one of the best places to live in Britain by The Sunday Times last year.
Building work on the town began in 1993 and it is due for completion in 2026 once they have added another 380 homes.
Dorset Police said they are investigating six incidents of criminal damage in St John Way, Peverell Avenue East and The Great Field and some of the graffiti had a ‘racial or anti-Semitic element’.
All the graffiti has since been cleaned off or boarded over but the speckles of left over paint and the slabs of wood look out of place in the perfect little town.
Poundbury takes its pristine image very seriously and there are strict rules for locals who want to decorate their homes.
Those who want to paint their house or door must only use colours from Duchy of Cornwall’s ‘approved colour’ list. If they want to grow a garden hedge it has to be an ‘appropriate indigenous species’ and must be ‘trimmed regularly’. Any house signs must be printed in one of the six permitted fonts with the letters no more than 4cm high.
PC Glen Caddy, of Dorchester Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Dorset Police takes hate crime extremely seriously and we are committed to identifying those responsible.
“We are following all available lines of enquiry and would ask anyone who saw what happened, or has information about who was responsible, to please come forward.
“Local officers will be carrying out enquiries in the area and can be approached by anyone while out on patrol with information or concerns.”
Anyone with information can call Dorset Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.