MINDLESS vandals have damaged benches at a popular park in Dovercourt.

Cliff Park, which was given a prestigious Green Flag Award last year, has seen some of its benches trashed by the vandals.

Slats were broken on seating in the park, which is cared for by hardworking Tendring Council ground staff and volunteers, The popular park was trashed once again in 2018 when vandals destroyed benches and sprayed graffiti onto the bandstand.

Tendring Council said damage has been reported and the benches will be replaced as part of the council’s work programme.

Harwich mayor Ivan Henderson deplored the vandalism and asked anyone with information to come forward.

He said: “It is a lovely place for people to sit and enjoy the surroundings.

“There is lots of work put into that area to make it look nice for visitors and this continued vandalism is senseless.

“It is a blight on our town. It pops up now and again and we need to get a grip of it and try and catch those responsible.”

Mr Henderson said vandalising the park is “senseless” but that rather than having fun, the yobs were costing the taxpayer to repair the damage.

He added: “If it is not in Cliff Park it will be somewhere else in the town. If they are not vandalising benches they will be vandalising beach huts.

“There is a minority of individuals who are trying to ruin our town and we need to get of grip of it.”

In November, almost 20 beach huts along the seafront were damaged or broken into.

Tendring councillor Michael Talbot, who is responsible for environment, said: “Our teams, working alongside the community, spend a lot of effort to keep these open spaces pleasant areas for people to enjoy.

“It is therefore so disappointing when a small minority decide to ruin it for everyone else, forcing us to spend extra time – and taxpayer’s money – replacing damaged items.

“If you are behind these incidents then please take a long hard look at yourself and do the decent thing by stopping these senseless actions.”