'Senseless' vandals destroyed a popular Nottingham Christmas tree organised by a Nottingham bereavement charity. At around 2.30pm on December 4 Forever Stars, the charity that owns the festive tree, discovered that the pride of Highfields Park had had its cable lights cut 'around twenty times.'
The lights for the tree were installed on Thursday, December 1, but unfortunately they have now been wrecked, meaning the park was only able to enjoy two full days of lights. Forever Stars is an East Midlands bereavement charity dedicated to supporting families who have suffered a stillbirth or infant loss.
Sadly, this is not the first time Forever Stars have endured damage to their properties. In August 2021 devastating damage was inflicted on a baby loss memorial garden.
At the time, Jo Sharp, operations and fundraising manager for the charity, said that travellers based on the adjacent University of Nottingham land in Highfields Park had been damaging Serenity Garden for a “whole week”. In the 24 hours since the mindless act of vandalism, the charity has raised more than £2,000, and Jo, says they want to show that "they won't be beaten."
She says the community outpouring has been "phenomenal." The tree had been sponsored by John Pye Auction House, which paid £850 for the tree. It was delivered to the park from Solihull by DD Haulage and Machine Movers, who spent more than two hours installing the tree.
Jo said: "It's just mindless and so senseless. Who knows why they're done it? Sadly they have and we are where we are.
"The most positive thing is the outpouring of community support. It demonstrates how much this garden means to the community, and that's visible.
"Whilst it's a really mindless act of criminal damage, the positive slant that's come off the back of that is, as a charity, what we want to focus on and pay our attention to. In less than 18 hours the JustGiving page has raised over £2,000.
"We work hard at what we do to try and achieve what we do achieve but we've got some phenomenal corporate and community support. So to see the hard work and effort of getting that tree in there in the first place just taken away in one mindless act was just heartbreaking.
"Thankfully a company provided the lights, called Leisure Lites LDT. I had to call them this morning to let them know.
"We needed them to be aware that it's their lights that were destroyed. They've made twenty-plus cuts.
"It's not just they've cut the lights once just to disconnect them. They've purposely gone round and continued to cut the cabling in various places to make sure that by no means was it ever going to come on.
"Somebody is there now repairing them as we speak from that company. Which is fantastic because as we said we would love for it to go back on because there is nothing more powerful than showing the idiots that we won't be beaten.
"We're there for a purpose and the tree is there for a purpose."
Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
Neighbourhood Inspector Ben Lawrence, who covers the Lenton area of the city, said: “We were called to a report of a damaged Christmas tree at the bottom of Highfields Park.
“The tree has been cut in more than 10 places including the lights. The tree is owned by a local charity who work tirelessly to support our community. This is a mindless act of vandalism and we are appealing for any witnesses to come forward. If you have any information or know who committed this crime to please call 101 quoting incident number 0369 of the 4th December 2022.”
Those who would like to donate to replace the Christmas tree lights can do so by clicking here.
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