Prestigious garden in Bournemouth is trashed by vandals (From Bournemouth Echo)

Prestigious garden in Bournemouth is trashed by vandals

11:00am Saturday 11th August 2012 in News By Paula Roberts

vandals who trashed an award-winning garden in Bournemouth are being hunted by police.

The popular display, which attracted huge attention in the Lower Gardens just below the Pavilion, was targeted by three men early yesterday.

Entitled ‘A Very Victorian Fantasy’, the display won Bournemouth council a silver gilt award at the prestigious Hampton Court Palace Flower show last month.

But when Bournemouth’s parks and gardens department arrived to water the top display yesterday they discovered someone had pushed over the towering kissing peacocks and one of the willow angels.

The incident was captured by a nearby CCTV camera but the pictures fail to show the faces of those responsible due to lighting and low-lying mist.

A Bournemouth council spokesperson said: “It shows three males walking up from the beach at 12.30am and carrying out the damage. They return around 30 minutes later and carry out further damage.”

Head gardener Robin Garrett said: “It took 10 to 15 people three weeks to create the display at Hampton Court and once the show was over we had to bring it back on lorries and assemble it again.

“We will be able to repair it but it won’t be back to its original standard.

“The people have loved it – we are disgusted that anyone could do this.”

Marina Vincent, from Wallisdown, said: “It is disgusting. I took some pictures of it last week and had come back down today to take another couple.

“It was beautiful and just very different. This kind of thing makes you very cross.”

The incident has been reported to Dorset Police . A spokesman said: “We would urge anyone with any information about this incident to call 101, quoting incident number C12, C33169.”