Staff at Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Gosforth headquarters in the grounds of St Nicholas Hospital in Newcastle turned up for work this morning week to discover two of its fleet vehicles in its car park had been vandalised.

A VW Caddy van which is used for transporting equipment between 60+ nature reserves and by the Wild City to transport display equipment into schools for use in assemblies and for events during school holidays and with community groups had its rear windows smashed in.

The charity’s trusty twelve-year-old Landrover had all its windows and windscreen smashed and its wing mirrors pulled, rendering it also out of action.

The damage to this vehicle is a massive blow to the charity’s estates officers and their volunteers who will have lots of ‘down time’ until it is repaired as the vehicle, which has covered hundreds of thousands of miles, is used to transport heavy equipment such as tractors around the region.

The vehicle is also essential for meadow management such as towing hay making equipment which has now had to stop and, once it has been repaired it will be a race against the weather and the end of the summer to get it completed.

Geoff Dobbins, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Estates Officer says:
"The work on our reserves is seasonal, dictated not only by the weather, but what is happening with the plants and animals are up to. This mindless vandalism really upsets the timetable of work scheduled for our reserves and we will spend the next few weeks playing catch up when it is so unnecessary." 

In addition to the vehicle damage in Newcastle, the wildlife charity has experienced a huge amount of damage on its other reserves throughout Newcastle, Northumberland and North Tyneside including:

Howdon reserve, North Tyneside: security fencing was cut again last week. This is a regular occurrence.

Whitelee Moor reserve: off road bikes driven across the blanket bog have caused damaged the precious peat essential for carbon storage.

Big Waters reserve experiences bouts of vandalism, particularly to the wildlife watching hides. 

Holywell Pond reserve:  the public hide is constantly being vandalised by youths who consume alcohol in there every weekend which leads to smashed glass and litter needing to be cleared away by the Holywell Warden Group.

As the hides are still used by local resident and bird watchers, the charity is reluctant to dismantle them. 

Briarwood Banks reserve: despite being in quite a remote area of Northumberland, there are usually a number of fires on the site each summer, which, coupled with littering, burnt out tents, and random tree felling provide a regular headache for volunteers and estates officers.

Close House and Priestclose Wood reserve: again, despite being in a remote area of Northumberland, have both suffered from fires, damage to their public information panels and damage to their fences.

Prestwick Carr (near Ponteland): information boards have recently been smashed.