COWDENBEATH Environment Group members are finding the damage being caused to the town's Community Woodland as 'soul destroying'.

Indeed, 2018 has been described as one of the worst in living memory for vandalism to the beauty spot.

What has bewildered the small number of hardworking volunteers who keep the Community Woodland in great shape is the effort that the unwelcome visitors put into dragging a whole host of wheelie bins more than a mile to the beauty spot.

One of the Enviro Group's members described the continued problems as dispiriting in a year the town won Silver Gilt status in the Beautiful Fife awards.

The enthusiast said: "This year has been the worst since we started to look after the woods.

"Absolutely soul destroying. Every weekend there are bin fires, the wheelie bins are being taken from houses and industrial premises in the area.

"The most common targets being Cullaloe View, Copeland Crescent and Sinclair Drive, and who knows where else. "As people can see from the photographs the bins are being dragged down the woods and torched. These are also being propped up against live trees which are also being destroyed".

He added: "We have been in the woods clearing loads of alcohol containers, cigarette packets broken glass and everything else that you could imagine. "Unfortunately the council don't clear up these areas. It is Cowdenbeath Environmental Group and the band of volunteers who do a great job, ensuring the paths are kept passable looking after the woodland furniture.

"Year on year adding bird boxes and the likes, indeed the town received silver gilt status this year which had a lot to do with the woodlands. A proper jewel in the crown. "

The enthusiast went on: "This year has really been bad especially the last few months . And unfortunately it is worse during school holidays.

"Just to let people know, in case they don't know, where the Community Woodland is, it is at the top of Broad Street behind the Gleaner petrol station.

"This is a fantastic facility on our doorstep which is visited by many people dog walkers, ramblers, cyclists, school groups and anyone that cares to travel through the woodland.

"Cowdenbeath Community Woodland has been in existence for over 50 years and hopefully survives another fifty . "This year alone the number of wheelie bins destroyed is over fifty which equates to thousands of pounds and at the weekend past we still had bins wiped out.

"We just hope that this does not deter people from visiting the woodlands. Police, the Safer Communities team and also the Fire Brigade have all been informed of developments at the site".