FOUR statues including a seven-foot-tall wooden deer have been vandalised in a park just two months after they were installed. 

The Friends of Wickford Memorial Park spent £4,000 and two years working on an animal trail that included a series of wood-carved animal statues scattered across the park for children to enjoy. 

On Saturday, vandals targeted the statues toppling the centrepiece deer alongside an owl, fox and kingfisher.

Statue - The deer statue Statue - The deer statue (Image: Kim Oakes)

 

The statues are held in place on a base by six-foot metal rods which have been snapped by the vandals. 

 Volunteers spent more than £4,000 raised through grants and fundraising and have been left furious by the incident. 

Friends of Wickford Memorial Park chairman Kim Oakes said: “The statues have been targeted; one is still okay, but we will be taking it out.

“These statues took two years to install and cost £4000, we do quiz nights, and it is purely volunteer fundraising. The council installed them for us and we didn’t incur expense because we worked in partnership with them, it was to be an asset.

“It was ready for the summer holidays and the park staff are upset, it was a project to get people into the park and we are furious and saddened they have been targeted.

“We can put them up again, but will they push them over again?”

 

Fallen - The fallen damaged deer statue Fallen - The fallen damaged deer statue (Image: Kim Oakes)

The volunteers are now contemplating whether it is worth the time and effort to re-install the statues. 

Kim added: “The time and effort and love we put in for children, to create a woodland carved animal trail was done for them with love and some toerag pushed them all down.

“My husband said he wants to leave Wickford; I am chair of the volunteers and I have done it for four years so I will pick myself up again but sometimes you wonder if someone else will come along.

“We can’t have anything nice.”

The woodland animals were fixed to the ground with six-foot steel rods and the deer sculpture required a crane to be installed, leaving Kim wondering how the damage happened.

“A concerted effort to push them off their bases was made,” she said.