Digger smashed up on Oswestry town green

A digger has been smashed up on Oswestry's new town green in the latest incident at the vandal-plagued site.

Hundreds of pounds worth of damage was caused.

Almost all the digger's windows were shattered in a Bank Holiday attack. It had only recently been bought.

The owner of the machine, sub-contractor Mr Keith Morris, discovered the damage this morning.

"The site was checked yesterday and it was fine then," he said.

"Six of the eight windows are broken. The digger is only six months old and has only done about 200 hours work."

He added: "It's not the first vandalism on this new town green, we have already had tree saplings snapped off at the bottom.

"I have always defended the site against those who have said it would be vandalised.

"I have said that people will look after it. Now look what has happened."

Other vandalism has seen fences trampled down after originally being put up to keep people off the land.

The £170,000 town green is being created on five acres of former railway land on the Gobowen Road in Oswestry.

Advantage West Midlands bought the site several years ago, planning to site a primary care centre there.

But a legal bid to designate the land a town green was successful, blocking the move, and Advantage West Midlands handed the land to Shropshire Council.

National grants have helped put together a scheme to turn the land into a mix of play areas and leisure and wildlife areas.

It is adjacent to the Shelf Bank land, which has recently been designated a local nature reserve.

The town green should be open to the public later in the summer.