Residents were 'disheartened' after vandals torched a town's popular post box toppers.
Halewood locals had come together to do something nice for the community as they adorned post boxes around the village with knitted toppers. They had the theme of the owl and the pussycat to help mark Knowsley's latest art trail featuring giant cats and owls.
Over the weekend, residents were "disappointed" to find the damage to the knitted creations and decided to remove the remaining toppers from the rest of the village, in fears of it happening again. The post boxes were left with charred stains on top of them and some have come together to try and clean them.
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One resident, who did not want to be named, said had tried to clean the two post boxes - one on Bailey's Lane and the other near St Marks. She said: "I think a few people have already tried to clean them, but the marks are stubborn. I think they're going to need painting to look good again. It's disheartening and now the people who made the toppers are reluctant to make any more in case it happens again.
"I thought it was a lovely touch and really brightened the place up. I know kids love to spot them as they go past. But some people just have to ruin things for the rest of us. Why do the minority always have to ruin it for the majority?"
Another local said: "I walk my grandkids to and from school and we always try and go past them as they loved looking at them. The kids will be devastated to see that they have gone. I hope they don't grow up and think it's ok to do things like this because it's not."
One person shared images of the burnt post boxes to a local group on Facebook, as they wrote: "Hope the idiots who set fire to and destroyed the owl and pussycat toppers by St Mark's and on Bailey's Lane are very proud of themselves. Hope their parents are too.
"The other toppers have now been removed for safety. We had planned to do some for Remembrance and Christmas but that now is very unlikely. Sorry to all those who enjoy and appreciate these."
Another Facebook user commented, as they said: "I’m so disappointed that all our hard work has been destroyed. What is worse is that the enjoyment of so many people is also taken away. We had some lovely conversations while we were putting these up. What do those responsible get out of such mindless vandalism I have no idea."
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