VANDALS trashed flowers bought to spruce up a Maldon housing estate just a day after volunteers planted them.

The Poets Estate residents’ association put the planter by the Eliot Way road sign on Friday.

But by Sunday morning yobs had pulled the flowers out of the pot, trampled on the soil and plants and thrown the planter down in nearby Browning Road.

Chairman of the association, Sue Thomson, slammed the “mindless vandalism”.

She said: “Maldon in Bloom approached us and asked if we would consider putting some planters on the estate to make it look nice.

“The Men in Sheds project made two planters for us and on Friday afternoon I put one under the road sign on Elliot Way.

“All together it cost over £50 by the time we had bought the plants.

“On Sunday morning I went out and found the planter in Browning Road so I went to where we had put it and it had been tipped over and all that was left were the bricks we put in the bottom to weight it down.”

Maldon and Burnham Standard:

Sue believes the incident happened on Saturday night, having seen the plants in place on Saturday afternoon.

She said: “I reported it to the police and they got back to me to ask if anybody had seen anything. But nobody did and there is no CCTV up there.”

The residents’ association is yet to decide it if will attempt to replant the flowers or where it will place the second planter, which has not yet been used.

Sue said: “To be honest I don’t know what to do any more. I have contacted the other people on the committee to see what they think.

“If we do anything is it going to happen again?”