VILLAGE floral displays have been wrecked days before judges were to give their verdict in a Yorkshire in Bloom contest.

Locals had spent hours filling tubs with flowers at Spofforth, near Harrogate, aiming to ensure the community would pick up another award for its petal power.

But vandals have tipped the contents of four huge tubs into a bus shelter, and put one on top of a telephone box.

Neighbours believe it had been placed to fall on someone's head when they opened the kiosk door.

The wreckers struck late on Saturday night, leaving a major clean-up job for volunteers who had just spent hours of hard work preparing the village.

Councillor Shirley Fawcett, chairwoman of Spofforth Parish Council, said it was not the first time the village had suffered such damage ahead of a contest.

"We don't know yet what effect it will have on the displays. But the volunteers have tried to put things right and the judges will be told what has happened," she said.