THIEVES who stole hundreds of pounds worth of trees planted to enhance the historic beauty of Frodsham have been slated as ‘lowlifes’ by park rangers.
Over the past two years thieves armed with spades have scoured the gardens at Castle Park in Frodsham digging up the trees and stealing them under the cover of darkness.
Now rangers have slated the green-fingered thieves, who are believed to live nearby, after 17 of the trees which were funded by the community and the Heritage Lottery Scheme-funded project to restore the grounds, were dug-up leaving the park with just three trees.
Richard Snow, Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Green Space team leader, said although many of the specimen trees, including several yew, had been replaced, it was ‘heartbreaking’ for the community to see their good work destroyed.
“It’s been heartbreaking to see all that hard work and effort put in by so many people destroyed,” said Mr Snow.
“We assume they were local enough to have been able to come with spades and carry a tree away.”
Police installed CCTV and stepped up night-time patrols in the park after park wardens thwarted an attempt to steal lead from the roof of the newly restored conservatory and the park suffered from a spate of antisocial behaviour over the summer.
The scale of tree thefts came to light as Castle Park Trust members last week approved, pending details plans, a request by the newly-formed ‘green’ group, Frodsham Transition Initiative, to plant a community orchard in Castle Park, adding to orchards already planned for Churchfields and Hawthorne Road.
Trust chairman and CWaC councillor for Frodsham Andrew Dawson said: “Planting trees in Castle Park has become something of a war of attrition.
“Many of the stolen trees were planted by community groups or in memory of events or individuals. You’d have to be quite a lowlife to steal such things.”
