VANDALS are threatening the future of yet another park in Derwentside.

The district council faced a storm of protest last year when it shut down 11 parks because of vandalism.

And now managers of the on-going £130,000 Millennium green project at Craghead, near Stanley, say they may have to cut back on their scheme because of the amount of wanton destruction.

In the past 18 months since the project began, vandals have: smashed pond fences on five separate occasions, destroyed part of a jetty area, set two picnic tables ablaze, ripped up dozens of trees planted in the memory of deceased members of Craghead families and caused various other damage.

The latest spate of vandalism took place at the weekend just days after the previous damage. The total amount of the damage has cost more than £1,000 to repair.

Manager of the Craghead Millennium Green Trust Michael Lockie told of his concerns that the project will not be completed.

He said: "It's eating into the money we had put aside for other things. We had just replaced the wooden posts for the fence around the pond last Friday and they really smashed them again at the weekend. We used to be able to get volunteers to help us but it's happening so regularly now that we can't.

"There's trees that individual families have planted in memory of their loved ones and just about all of those have gone. Some of the damage takes such an amount of effort to cause it can't all be put down to young teenagers."

Craghead beat officer PC Catherine Knox said: "It's very upsetting to see the damage that's being caused. The park is there for pleasure and to see it being mindlessly smashed up is very distressing for all the people who have put so much work into it."

The Millennium green project is currently being developed by the environment charity Groundwork West Durham with the Craghead Millennium Green Trust. Funding for the park, which is on the site of an old coal mine, came from the National Lottery, Government grants and local fundraising.

Anyone with any information should call Stanley police on (01207) 232144