A council is offering a £100 reward to anyone who can help to catch vandals who destroyed about £2,000 worth of floral displays.

Stockton Borough Council is offering the reward after ten of 50 newly-planted displays were vandalised.

The council spent £10,000 on the displays, which are in large wooden tubs, in June, in an attempt to make main roads in the area more attractive.

The money was spent on installing and maintaining the flower tubs.

One of the tubs, at Owington Farm roundabout, in Billingham, was stolen within a week. Thieves made off with the tub and its contents.

Since then, nine others - all in the Thornaby area - have had to be removed, after being stripped of their flowers over several weeks.

A council spokesman said that in many cases flowers had been ripped out by the roots and left strewn around the tubs.

He said it was believed to be the first time that the council had offered a reward to the public in exchange for information.

Flowers have been pulled from tubs on the A174, west of the A19, near to the Welcome to Thornaby sign, as well as on several roundabouts near the Thornaby Road and A66 junction.

Tubs outside the Reg Vardy garage, and near the Audi garage in Mandale Road, have also been vandalised.

Geoff Field, the council's member for environment, branded the actions "mindless".

He said: "Just a few people have wrecked these floral displays and spoilt things for thousands of others.

"We are working hard to increase floral displays around the borough and trying to brighten things up for residents and visitors alike.

"We will continue in our efforts, but it is very disappointing that such a high proportion of our displays have been wrecked."

Coun Field said the council would take action against culprits wherever possible. He added that the cash reward applied if a culprit was positively identified.

Bob Gibson, council leader, who came up with the reward idea, said: "It is very frustrating that our efforts to brighten up the borough have been met with this response.

"That is why we came up with the reward idea - if we can put an end to these mindless activities then we will be looking to expand the floral tubs scheme in the future."

Anyone with information should contact the council hotline on (01642) 391959.