Memorial bench to be removed after vandalism at Thorpe Meadows

The bench was donated by local wildlife conservation charity Froglife and was located along the river bank of the Peterborough Rowing lake.

The vandalism was first reported to the Peterborough Telegraph on Tuesday morning.

Froglife work closely with the Nene Park Trust, who manage the Thorpe Meadows site.

In 2016, the charity raised over £15,000 through a mixture of crowdfunding, donations and grants to improve visitor infrastructure at the Boardwalks nature reserve,

Amongst the improvements made were new interpretation boards, two carved benches, a pond dipping platform, way-markers with arrows and wildlife inspired rubbing plates, six challenge trail cubes and more bat and bird boxes.

This was alongside work to improve the pond’s habitats for amphibians.

The bench that was vandalised was commissioned by the children of a Peterborough mother to commemorate her life.

She spent the final few years of her life at Thorpe Hall Hospice and loved ponds and wildlife.

Froglife Chief Executive Officer Kathy Wormald said: “This vandalism is extremely disturbing and also very sad.

“These benches are carefully crafted by a wood craftsman who is extremely talented.

To wantonly vandalise something so precious is appalling behaviour and beyond belief.

“We will be removing the bench. We have considered replacing it or seeing if we can get this one repaired, but it will probably be vandalised again and we cannot justify spending our very tight resources on replacing vandalised items.”