THE terrible trouble caused by vandals at the Cowdenbeath Community Woodland really has to be addressed.

There has been pockets of problems at this beauty spot for some years, caused in some ways by it being fairly remote.

However, the fact that Cowdenbeath Environment Group members have called it their worst time yet since the summer really is worrying.

Streets such as Cullaloe View and Copeland Crescent seemed to have suffered a lot from the wheelie bin thieves who take these away purely to burn them in the woodland!

The fact is that through the work of the volunteers of the Environment Group the Woodland has been rightly said to be the 'Jewel in Cowdenbeath's Crown' and played a huge part in the town receiving Silver Gilt status in the Beautiful Fife Awards.

The volunteers spend hours cleaning up after the work of the unwelcome visitors and the Community Police Team also have to make regular visits to try and head-off the vandals.

However, they cannot be there all the time and most of the damage to the woodland sees a lot of lovely trees damaged by fire through the wheelie bins being set alight.

Surely parents could help in this desperate situation. If they could explain to youngsters how this is not a playground for fireraisers and indeed a real asset to their community, it might get over that it is certainly a place that can be visited but for the right reasons.

It clearly is galling for the volunteers, small in number, who throughout the year work hard to create a facility that the people of the town and beyond can enjoy in the spring and summer months especially.

The Environment Group are clearly frustrated by recent happenings and hopefully something can be done to reduce this problem for 2019.

It needs a combined effort to make the perpetrators involved to realise how damaging their activities are to the town.