A community bird hide has been trashed by vandals.
Several hundred pounds worth of damage has been caused to the snipe hide at the Moffat Community Nature Reserve.
The damage is thought to have happened overnight on Thursday last week.
Community council treasurer David Booth said: “Someone saw the hide on Thursday evening and it was fine. It wasn’t until Friday morning we could see the amount of damage.
“Your first reaction when you see something like this is ‘Why do we even bother?’
“It’s not a government or Dumfries and Galloway Council hide, this is the result of local people trying to do their best to improve their community and this is the thanks we get.
“This is beyond vandalism. Each side is nearly destroyed.”
A Facebook post from Moffat Community Council said they were “reeling” from the damage and that the cost of repairing the facility is estimated at between £300 and £400.
Mr Booth told the Standard: “We’ve just spent quite a lot of money to fix an access road and in the next breath somebody has done this.
“I can’t understand why anyone would do this. I know people say there’s not a lot for young people to do in the area but destroying a recreational site shouldn’t be one of them.
“What makes this even worse is this is we have repaired a damaged roof on another hide recently and this one that has been damaged now is the one with wheelchair accessibility.”
Mr Booth added: “The community has been great though.
“There has been a big reaction of outrage to this and several local tradespeople have been in touch and there have already been some donations to fix it.
Anyone with information relating to the vandalism is asked to contact the police on 101 or by contacting Crimestoppers anonymously.
