A NEWENT publican says vandals who broke nine of his pub’s windows will not deter him from making his establishment a community friendly hub.

Two masked vandals smashed the windows of the Red Lion at around 2am on July 15 but Mike Panting, who runs the Broad Street pub, it was attacked because of his hard line on anti-social behaviour and suspected drug dealing.

He said: “It’s a community pub and I don’t tolerate that sort of behaviour.

“We have pool, darts, hockey and many other clubs that come here.

“We are not going to give in. We want to make it a community pub where people can come to enjoy and relax.

Mr Panting says it will cost around £1,000 to repair the damage.

“It’s a nuisance but I’m very thankful for all the support we’ve received from the community.

“Trade was very good over the weekend.

Mr Panting says he’s 99 per cent sure the offenders were not from the market town.

“I have my ideas of who it could have been, but I can’t make assumptions.

“It’s quite hard to identify who they are as they were wearing masks and gloves when broke the windows.

“But despite this attack we will endeavour to make the Red Lion a community pub.”

A police spokesperson said: “At around 2am on July 15, the windows of a pub on Broad Street in Newent were smashed by two men wearing masks.

“They made off on foot along Court Lane.

“They were also wearing jeans and bomber jackets and used a metal pole to smash around 10 windows.

"Entry was not gained to the pub and nothing was stolen.

“Officers are conducting house to house and CCTV enquiries in the area.

Anyone with information should call 101 quoting incident 33 of 15 July.