HEARTLESS vandals who cruelly damaged the photo of a former decorated member of the Royal Navy have been slammed by furious council chiefs.
Parks officers at Wychavon District Council after the picture of Ted Annis in Pershore’s Commemorative Garden in the Abbey Park was vandalised between 7.30pm on Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22 at 7pm.
The photo was on an information panel and remembered Ted, who served in the Royal Navy with distinction during the Suez Crisis in 1956, and who was also a former town councillor and founder of the Pershore and District Royal Naval Association and Social Club.
Both he and his family served the town with distinction until he passed away in November 2014. Council bosses have arranged for the damaged panel to be removed and have already had a new one made to replace it.
Senior Parks Officer, Lynn Stevens, said: “This is a disgrace and the vandals should be ashamed. We have obviously paid to put this right, but it’s important to remember that this money could be used for other things to improve parks and open spaces rather than fixing something that has been mindlessly vandalised.”
“It goes without saying Ted’s family is very upset about this. The park is a lovely place to go, which makes it even more appalling that some unthinking people do not have respect for places like the Commemorative Garden and for the people it is there to pay tribute to.”
The vandalism has been reported to the police and the incident number is 755-S-220418. If anyone has any information about this incident they can phone the police on 101 and quote the incident number to report it.
