A COMMUNITY garden has been vandalised four times since its unveiling last month.

Children planted vegetables and herbs and Colne Housing association paid for shrubs at the garden, in Balfe Court, Forest Road, Colchester.

The garden was vandalised most recently on Friday.

Amanda Stannard, a Balfe Court resident and Colne Housing director, said: “The vandalism has been constant.

It is down to me to look after the garden, but I can’t watch it 24 hours a day. The first two weeks were lovely, but I am beginning to lose heart.” The garden was created on a disused former playground. Vegetables, herbs and fruit bushes, worth £50, were dug up and plants ripped from two hanging baskets between May 9 and May 18. Vegetables were ripped out again on Friday, between 7pm and 9pm.

Mrs Stannard said: “People have worked so hard on the garden. The children love it and elderly couples sit down to enjoy it and then we have people doing this. Maybe we need a security camera, but they are so expensive. The police have been great, but it can’t keep happening.”

Anyone with information should call Colchester police on 101.