The doors of two High Street businesses have been 'kicked in' in what is believed to be an act of vandalism.
Stags estate agents and A House of Cake had their glass front door panes smashed sometime between Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning.
Lesley Retallack, who opened her cake shop on High Street less than two months ago, was alerted to the damage when a passerby contacted her at around 5am on Sunday. Despite the 'mindless attack', the business has pledged to open as usual this week. Lesley said: "We're open as usual, we're making everything safe now. We're in the shop today preparing everything to open on Tuesday.
"The members of the public have been absolutely amazing. A teenage girl on her paper round was really upset for us, that someone had gone and done this. But it won't affect anything it's just sad for the people of Wellington because we have got them a really nice shop that they really adore and now we've got a girt wooden board on the front door. But we'll get it back to normal soon."
Lesley's partner Chris, who helps with the business, arrived on the scene to clean up the glass and assess the damage. He said: "From 5am to 7am we received numerous phone calls from the public letting us know what had happened.
"By the time we got here the door had been smashed in, it has obviously been kicked in from the front. There was no attempt to get into the building, they just kicked the door in. There's a big foot sized hole at the bottom of the door, whether it was a foot or a stone it's hard to say - but there were no stones on the inside or the outside.
"It looks like sheer mindlessness. It was just a hole in the door and no attempt to gain access. It looks like it was hijinks rather than someone trying to steal anything. It was disappointing but the positive thing was we were inundated with messages of support from the community.
Wellington's mayor, Marcus Barr, opened A House of Cake in May. He expressed his anger at the vandalism: "It's really disappointing news. Businesses in the town centre are finding things tough enough as it is without this kind of mindless criminality.
![A ribbon cutting ceremony performed by Wellington Mayor Cllr Marcus Barr to officially open House of Cake for Lesley Retallack](https://www.wellington-today.co.uk/tindle-static/image/2023/05/06/19/WWN%20Mayor%20opens%20cake%20shop%202.jpg?trim=0,717,0,375&width=669&height=445&crop=669:445)
"I really hope the police can find who did this and prosecute them for it. There is too much of this going on and usually we don't seem to see anybody caught and punished."
At around the same time that A House of Cake was targeted, the glass front door of Stags estate agents was also smashed. It is the second occasion on which the estate agents has been targeted in recent months, having previously had one of their windows put through.
As with the attack on A House of Cake there appears to have been no attempt to make off with anything from inside the building. The incident has been reported to the police who are appealing for any witnesses or people with video footage to come forward. A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said:
"CCTV enquires are being carried out following criminal damage in Wellington over the weekend.
"We've received reports of two business premises, in the High Street area, had windows broken at some point overnight on Saturday into the early hours of Sunday morning.
"Witnesses, or anyone with relevant dashcam and other footage, is asked to call 101 and quote reference number 5223150026."