Vandals trash children’s garden

NOT fair... pupils (from left) Shanila Chowdhury, Sumayyab Bashir, Nafeesa Rashid, Zaria Nadeem and Azfar Al in the vandalised garden and (below) the sign on the wall, which welcomes visitors to the area

VANDALS have destroyed a beautiful garden which junior school children spent nearly a year creating.

Youngsters at Alexandra Park Junior School spent hours weeding, digging, planting and decorating to create a bright, colourful space at the Brook Lane site in Glodwick.

Children and teachers were left devastated after three hooded louts climbed over a high, locked fence to trash the garden causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage. Now there are no funds available to replace the damaged goods.

More than 20 children attended the Green Hand Gang Club set up last summer. They’ve attended the club every Tuesday lunchtime, using a grant from Groundwork Trust to get the garden ready to bloom.

Teacher Paula Harold, who ran the club, said: “I have done a lot of hard work with the children and we have spent a lot of money.

“The children have worked really hard weeding, planting, decorating and watering but on Friday the caretaker found it had been completely devastated.

“A new £200 shed had been smashed to pieces, three watering cans destroyed, flowers and seeds pulled up and trampled on and markers taken out. Rubbish and litter was left everywhere.

“It’s just mindless vandalism. They’ve destroyed all the hard work that children have put in for months. The shed was not locked as there was no equipment in it so they did not steal anything.

“They did not have to force open the shed, they just destroyed it for the sake of destroying it. They have ripped it to pieces for the sheer fun of it.

“It’s obviously a children’s garden at a school with bright, colourful things and they have just climbed in to wreck it.

“The children have asked what we can do but all our funds are gone.

“They have learned the value of taking care of things and have now had someone come along and show them the opposite.”

CCTV footage has captured the vandalism and police are investigating.