VANDALS ran amok in the St Patrick's Primary school playground over the weekend causing considerable damage and wrecking the greenhouse which the pupils loved using to grow plants and vegetables.

The chair of the St Pat's Parent Council, Debby Bell, said that the school's Trim Trail had also been destroyed and bins damaged by the unwanted raiders.

Debbie explained that her daughter, who is a P3 pupil at the Station Road school in Lochgelly, noticed something was wrong on Monday morning as she was being driven down past the school.

Said Debby: "She was shocked to see the Trim Trail tyres thrown down the slope towards the road and further investigation showed a great deal of time and effort had been spent on causing havoc.

"The pupils' greenhouse is beyond repair and considerable damage has been done to the mud kitchen, with bins broken and the Trim Trail tyres thrown down the slope.

"Mercifully the gate was shut or the tyres could have rolled onto Station Road and posed real problems for passing cars on what is a busy road."

Debby said that her daughter was particularly upset at the destruction of the greenhouse which she enjoyed using a lot, and added: "It looks like this has happened on either Saturday or Sunday night but it really is terrible how the vandals have wantonly smashed up equipment that the pupils of the school love using.

"The greenhouse has been virtually destroyed and how we replace that I do not know. It really is dispiriting."

This damage to the primary school, in Station Road, comes only a 10 days after vandalism occurred at St Patrick's Church, diagonally across the road.

The church congregation were considering upgrading security around the church building after stained glass windows were broken and refuse bins knocked over and contents set alight, along with flowerpots smashed.

Community Inspector Gavin Cameron said that his team was this week investigating the incident and added: "This situation caused needless damage in the school grounds and we would welcome any information from the public who may have seen anything suspicious around the school grounds."

Contact 101 if you can help with the inquiries.