SWINDON Harriers Athletic Club could be given the go-ahead to erect a security fence within a fortnight.

Repeated acts of vandal-ism have cost the club more than £50,000 over the past six years.

The club became so sick of the damage that earlier this year it joined forces with Swindon Council to install a 2.4 metre high £35,000 fence around the perimeter of the track.

The urgency of installing the fence became clear once again this week after ano-ther attempt to steal equip-ment from the club's County Ground headquarters.

Last weekend the club was the victim of what chairman Ian Larrard described as a premeditated attack.

Vandals, using drills, tried to force their way into a sealed container used to store valuable athletics equipment such as hurdles and mats but fled empty handed.

Mr Larrard, 46, said "A drill is not something that someone usually carries around with them. Luckily they did not make off with anything.

"I know the application is being processed at the moment but hopefully it will not be too much longer because then we can really start to get things moving along.

"In fairness the council has had a lot of other projects to worry about financing from their capital budget, but we are all anxious to see progress it's generated a lot of interest."

Council spokeswoman Lynda Fleming said the joint application did not have to go before committee and could be dealt with under delegated powers.

Officers recently carried out a site visit and a revised application was submitted to the council on Wednesday and it could be a fortnight before final approval is given.

"It's a question of whether the revised plans get the go-ahead once they have been looked at," she added.

Swindon Council will lend the self-funded club the money for the fence on the condition it pays it back at a rate of £8,000 a year including interest.