Great Aycliffe Town Council said plants were pulled up, thrown around and the beds were "severely trampled" in St Oswald's Park, off Wren Close.

The damage was done sometime between 5pm and 8pm on Wednesday.

Great Aycliffe Town and Durham County Councillor John Clare said: "Although we have to acknowledge that this kind of vandalism is much reduced recently, this is very sad to see."

The incident led to an angry reaction when The Northern Echo publicised it on Facebook.

Stella Rogers wrote: "I do hope that they find who did this and if they do, the punishment they should get is not time as punishment but to buy new plants out of their own pockets and plant them again."

Shirley Carr wrote: "Absolutely no need. just pure little scum growing up to be big scum."

Mark Tommo Thompson wrote: "What a society we live in today. No respect for anything. Bad when you can't have anything nice because it ends up destroyed or damaged."

Liana Cumming wrote: "It only takes a few young people to tar the reputation of the majority. Some people have no respect for anything.

"They should be made to earn the money to buy the new plants then be made responsible for the planting and after care."

Amy Murray wrote: "If caught they should be made to provide all the flowers with money from their own pockets or out of benefits.

"They should also be made to do the work to put them back in place and look after them for a least a year. Destructive, mindless toerags."

• Anyone with information about the vandalism should contact Newton Aycliffe Police on non-emergency 101.

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