Staff at a Paisley nursery have been left devastated after a gang of yobs torched and trashed their much-loved garden.
Managers of Little Learners on Abercorn Street were horrified when they turned up at the centre to find it had been the target of mindless vandals.
Play equipment in their beloved space had been set alight and destroyed, and the ground has been left charred and damaged by the blaze on Sunday night.
Area manager Catriona Donnelly is now urging other businesses to be vigilant as many are currently lying empty due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said: “It is so disheartening that someone would do this.
“We don’t want something like this to happen to any other businesses, especially schools and nurseries in the area.
“There are so many places that are lying unoccupied just now and the risk of vandalism is higher.
“We have never had any problems at all before now.”
The newly-completed garden space had been created by staff, parents and children last summer as part of a community project.
Nursery staff now fear it will not be able to be fixed in time for the youngsters returning to the centre when it reopens.
Catriona added: “We are all absolutely gutted. We are all working to organise everything for the children returning as it is obviously going to be difficult to settle them back into a routine with everything that has been going on.
“So to have a space that we all put so much heart and thought into creating be destroyed is just awful.
“It’s going to be hard enough for the kids as it is.
“We don’t have a lot of access to outdoor space surrounding the nursery so this space is so vital for the children and so much of their learning takes place here.
“We don’t know if we will be able to repair it in time for them returning.”
Police are now working to trace the yobs, who were all caught on CCTV carrying out the heartless act.
Four youths can be seen on the footage enter the nursery garden and begin
damaging various pieces of furniture and equipment.
They then set it alight and flee the scene, leaving the fire to take hold.
Fire crews rushed to the premises around 4am to extinguish the blaze before it could do any more damage to the garden.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman confirmed an investigation is underway.
