A 'DISAPPOINTING' act of vandalism on a newly installed piece of play equipment in Tavistock Meadows will not dampen the spirits of those who have worked hard to improve the area, says Tavistock's town mayor. After more than a year of hard work and fundraising to improve the play equipment in the town's park, the Meadows Makeover team and the town council installed the first new piece of equipment last week — only for someone to graffiti it with red spray paint less than 24 hours later. The brand new wobble board, which was put in place on Thursday, was found the following morning with sprayed red lines across it, along with red paint on other pieces of equipment. Mother of two Natalie Wilkins said she takes her children to the park most weekends and was dismayed to hear of the graffiti. She said: 'It is a real shame. 'I'm conscious that a lot of people have been ploughing a lot of time and effort into improving the park and a few people have come along and tried to ruin it. 'I'm really pleased that it hasn't blighted the efforts of the local people and the makeover is still going ahead. 'Hopefully whoever has done it will see that it hasn't had too much of an effect on people using the park — it was just a senseless and unnecessary thing to do.' Parent Richard Tyler, who has been visiting the Meadows for around nine years with his three children, said: 'After there has been such a big community effort to get the new equipment in place it is disappointing that someone has come along and ruined it for everyone. 'It was great to see that the council worked quickly to sort it out though and it will be great when all the new equipment is in. It is lovely to see that the park is getting a facelift.' A number of angry parents and park users took to the Meadows Makeover Facebook page to vent their frustration after the incident. One woman commented: 'This is disgusting. After all the hard work that has gone into fundraising by two lovely ladies who have given up countless time, some hooligans think it is ok to do this.' Another said: 'Why do others have to ruin it for the people that respect the park and use it so much? It's so sad.' Town mayor Cllr Harry Smith was adamant that the incident wasn't going to put the council or the Meadows Makeover team off their plans to develop the park. He said: 'It is so disappointing to see, considering the amount of effort by the town council and the makeover team to improve the park. 'It is also disappointing for the council tax payers who have paid for the new equipment and have had to pay again to have it rectified. 'There has been so much support for that play area. 'I find it incredible that my fellow councillors and I have worked hard to get enough money in the budget to help this project and within such a short space of time, it has been vandalised. 'There is obviously a lot of anger from people who use the equipment and have supported what we have been trying to do. It is a small number of people who are trying to ruin it for the rest. 'It was a mindless, stupid act. 'It will not put us off though, we will still be putting in more new equipment because it is for the people of the town and it is what they want.' Cllr Smith said the council was hoping to take some positive steps to talk to schools, community groups and other outlets to educate people about vandalism and hopefully deter people from doing it in the future. PCSO Kevin Williams, from Tavistock Police Station, said the police would do all they could to find out who was responsible for the vandalism. 'We will be liaising with the council and trying to piece together who may have done this from the damage that was caused. I understand most of the graffiti has been cleaned off by the council, but it is a major inconvenience and upsetting after the new equipment had just been installed for the public's benefit. 'We do patrol the park several times a day as routine and will continue to do so. Sometimes things happen very quickly and we cannot be everywhere all of the time. 'At the moment it seems this was a one-off act of vandalism.'