THE new owners of the Mailcoach pub are furious after vandals destroyed the pub’s garden just a month after they took it over.

The pub, which closed in December for financial reasons, was targeted earlier this week.

A consortium of four took over the running of the pub in Fleet Street and have been working hard to revamp the gay venue.

Vandals broke into the garden on Wednesday night through the back gate and stole £100 worth of plants and left it in a state.

Co-owner Ian Boyd said: “We have spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks to make the garden nice for people to enjoy.

“Overnight on Wednesday people have vandalised the garden and stolen the plants.

“Everything we’ve done has been undone, it is very disappointing.

“We had spent around £100 on the plants, so we have to recoup that.

“We have put a lot of money into renovating the pub for its opening, it’s not cheap.”

The Mailcoach has had a chequered past with a number of owners in recent years and was slammed by the council in December 2009 for selling alcohol to six children and allegedly fuelling crime and disorder by serving drunken customers.

Ian is confident that the consortium of him, his partner Roger Essex Martin Jones and Mark Schofield can turn the pub around.

They have put a lot of work into the interior as well as the garden in preparation for its launch night.

Ian said: “We took over at the beginning of February and we have done a lot of work to renovate the pub.

“We are looking to give the gay people of Swindon somewhere safe to drink again which the town has been missing since it closed down.

“I was born in Swindon and I started drinking at the Mailcoach when it first opened.

“When it went under we all had to find somewhere new to go.

“We are now treating it as two separate venues with a club end and a bar and have completely revamped the bar and have a much bigger dance floor.

“The Mailcoach is going to return to being the number one gay venue in Swindon.”

The Mailcoach is still on course to open on April 1 and Swindon Council leader Rod Bluh will perform the official opening.