LATE-NIGHT binge drinkers have been blamed for a trail of damage across Harrogate's 200-acre Stray.

Four young trees have been badly damaged and one of them snapped in two on the West Park Stray, near Otley Road.

Meanwhile, a bus shelter fronting West Park has been damaged after arsonists attempted to set it on fire.

The vandalism has been condemned by Harrogate Borough Stray ward councillor Cliff Trotter.

He said: "It is just mindless vandalism, but when it's all totted up with other incidents, it is costing council taxpayers thousands of pounds to put right."

Coun Trotter said he had received complaints about the shelter, near the Montpellier area, which has had its interior windows broken.

"Now the structure is being attacked and it looks as if the vandals are systematically destroying it," said the councillor.

"Repairs have been carried out, but then it is damaged again - and all this at a time when the town has never looked better because of all the effort that went into winning Britian in Bloom," he said.

North Yorkshire Police said the latest damage had not been reported.

Residents in the Tewit Well area, near another stretch of the Stray, have reported anti-social behaviour and vandalism.

In another part of the Stray, Coun Trotter said that teenagers as young as 14 had been seen with carrier bags of alcohol in binge drinking sessions.