Police hunt vandals after Torquay palm tree is damaged
'MINDLESS vandals' have caused permanent damage to Torquay's new palm tree.
Police are investigating after Torbay Council workers discovered bark on the rear tree missing.
It is thought someone has tried to climb the controversial landmark.
The bark will never grow back.
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Now the authority is reviewing its CCTV network in a bid to find the culprits, who are thought to have struck over the weekend.
A spokesman said: "This is a case of mindless vandalism. Whoever has done this has not only permanently damaged the tree but has also detrimentally affected the local community and the positive message we are trying to send to potential investors who ultimately create jobs for the area.
"We are taking this incident very seriously and will be viewing CCTV footage from the area in order to gather evidence for any potential prosecution.
"The palm tree on Kerswell Gardens roundabout is part of a much larger scheme aimed at improving the gateways into the Bay and in turn attracting new businesses and more visitors to the area."
The tree is due to be wrapped up for the winter later this week to help protect it from the frost.
A week after it was installed from Spain, at a cost of £7,000, a toy Sponge Bob Square Pants was tied to the plant.
The photographs, which compared the roundabout to his pineapple home of Bikini Bottom, went viral and attracted almost 1,000 'likes' online.
Mayor Gordon Oliver is behind the scheme as part of a package of improvements costing £20,000.
If it survives, the plant will be redeployed in three years' time when the Kingskerswell bypass comes through the route.
Comments
by howardd1
Saturday, November 17 2012, 6:14PM
“went past it other day for first time all those rocks and the palm looks like a marker for some dead arab chief”
by Dick__Palmer
Monday, November 12 2012, 5:40PM
“lol not more garbage printed about this bloody palm...and wait....no posts from Rivierapalms as yet!! ...my god what ever next......well done willfy1234 for pointing out is was EXACTLY this way when planted!....get a grip Herald Express! no wonder you had to go to one day a week printing! I hope the journo responsible for this rubbish wasn't paid for his input........"The photographs, which compared the roundabout to his pineapple home of Bikini Bottom, went viral and attracted almost 1,000 'likes' online" ...OH PLEASE BELT UP!”
by ineedtherapy
Monday, November 12 2012, 12:05PM
“So all in all another excellent piece of investigative journalism from the Herald Express.
'MINDLESS vandals' have caused permanent damage to Torquay's new palm tree.....reads the opening statemen and before printing this tripe it's almost funny to realise that they couldn't even be bothered looking into their own photo archive.....”
by DevonJanner
Sunday, November 11 2012, 8:19AM
“no comment from the mayor yet!”
by Karen362
Saturday, November 10 2012, 1:00PM
“I suppose someone could have just tried to take a cutting (if you'll excuse the terrible pun?!)”
by ziderman
Saturday, November 10 2012, 9:56AM
“Maybe the council should now investigate why this idiot of a mayor wasted council tax payers money on purchasing damaged goods for the bay”
by Cweed
Saturday, November 10 2012, 9:21AM
“Hope someone's been ticked off for wasting police time.
Another episode of complete incompetence. Why not get Damian Hirst to make huge statue of a pregnant pineapple cut in half with all it internal bits on show. That would be something.”
by Corsham999
Friday, November 09 2012, 8:53PM
“Must have seen that one coming, no oh well people that are out of touch with what is really going on are out of touch. CCTV may have helped.To expensive etc well it may also have /could be used for traffic control.”
by DevonJanner
Friday, November 09 2012, 8:45PM
“now it seems the lie has been outed,we can get down to the more serious issue of the spongebob pants,maybe they belong to the mayor!”
by Sinjis_Things
Friday, November 09 2012, 6:50PM
“We were told that it had been wrapped up for winter with a photograph. Therefore didn't the workmen who wrapped it notice the damage, was it damaged when it was wrapped or was the damage not noticed when the thing was delivered and the council want to blame someone else for their cock-up.”