PLAY equipment destroyed by vandals just two days after the official opening of a Torryburn play park will be replaced by Fife Council.

The Press reported that village residents were left disgusted after £990 worth of damage was caused to a spinner bowl in the park, on Main Street, on Sunday 22nd June after its official opening on Friday 20th.

The project to revamp the park with new equipment saw members of the community raise £3900 towards its final cost of £76,400 through a variety of fund-raising initiatives, while grants of £42,600 from Fife Environment Trust, £20,000 from the council’s area budget and a further £10,000 from its capital plan contributed to the final total.

The vandalism angered those involved with the project, with Kerry Couch of the Torryburn Play Park Project group commenting, “The project involved everybody from the toddler group to grandparents helping make posters and do bag-packing. It’s been a real community effort but we won’t let it get us down as I hope the children involved will protect the park in the future.

“We had a fantastic opening with so many people playing in the park and so for something like this to happen is really sad.” West Fife and coastal villages councillor Bobby Clelland, chair of the South West Fife area committee, said, “It’s always disappointing to see public areas and facilities vandalised. In this case, it’s particularly sad to see it happen so soon after the official opening of the park. Local residents did a huge amount of work to help fund this project for the benefit of the whole community. I think it’s important that we replace the vandalised item quickly to get the park looking as good as new. Fife Council has already ordered a replacement and we’ll install this as soon as we receive it in the coming weeks.” Police Scotland confirmed that their investigations are ongoing and they are looking for any witnesses in relation to the incident to come forward by calling 101.