SAPLINGS just about to spread their leaves to the spring sunlight were uprooted by vandals who attacked them with sticks over the weekend.

Ten of the trees at the Hreod Burna Urban Forest, in Gorse Hill, were savaged when someone raked through the trees with sticks, damaging rabbit guards and uprooting stakes.

While the incident has not been reported to the police, Steve Thompson, one of the trustees of the group, which achieved charitable status last year, suspects the damage was caused by someone taking a shortcut through the green space after a night out.

“Someone has been going through the new trees for quite a while now taking off the rabbit guards,” he said.

“Every time we put new ones on we go back and they’ve been taken off.

“I’m not sure who does it or why. We call them the tree liberation force.

“But on Saturday morning some walkers went through the forest and saw that 10 trees had been completely destroyed.

“They used a stick and broke the tree guards, stakes and unfortunately some of the trees.

“Dog walkers have told me that it was all right on Friday evening so it was probably drunks on the way home in the night.”

The vandalism has disappointed and saddened the trustees of the group, who have spent countless hours clearing the open space on the site of the former allotments at Pickards Small Field and Kembrey Grass, which faced being built on and lost to housing back in 2012.

Since then the group has cleared the site for new allotments.

It is less than a year since sister trees were destroyed at the site last May, after which 20 new trees were planted by volunteers from Nationwide to replace them.

“It’s very dispiriting,” said Steve.

“People in Swindon don’t really seem to like parks and green spaces. We had 10 trees planted on the side of the road but these were one by one eventually all cut down so people could park there.

“It’s always very disappointing when something like this happens. The Urban Forest is something for everybody to enjoy and it seems such a shame that anything like this should happen.

“It’s a long process to see everything grow and it is for the community. They haven’t just harmed the trees or the group but the whole community who enjoy the forest.”

Last February 1,000 trees and 25 standard fruit trees were planted by a number of volunteers, including some of the Scouts at the Hreod Burna Urban Forest, to develop the open space into a valuable community asset.

The group is keen to establish an urban forest after learning about the benefit of green spaces for people’s well-being.