A GROUP of dedicated volunteers who transformed a popular path leading to he Meadows park in Tavistock have expressed their despair over vandalism to the area.

Rose Walk by the Tavistock Bowling Club has been tended to for the past ten months by volunteers from Transition Tavistock who gave the area a 'makeover' with support from Tavistock Town Council.

Months of hard work, under the initiative 'Roots to Transition', saw Rose Walk transformed from an overgrown area to a beautiful vegetable and rose patch and resulted in a Level 4 Britain in Bloom for the group.

One volunteer told the Times that a water butt had sustained a large split down one side, resulting in all the water escaping — water which was to be used for next year's flowers and vegetable patches.

Ali Sedgwick said she believed someone had given the water butt a substantial kick to cause that amount of damage: 'The water butt was our only source of water and was donated by Lawsons. Vandalism had been caused to the water butt resulting in a crack down one side. All the water has gone and now we have no way of watering the flowers and vegetables next year.

'All the work we do is on a shoe string — there are ten of us and we work really hard and we give up our time for free.

'People have said how nice it is to see the roses out of the weeds and they have been enjoying the free vegetables. I was so upset about this as we have worked hard.'

Kate Royston, co-ordinator for Transition Tavistock, said: 'The incident has been particularly upsetting.

'We were expecting the ducks to cause some damage, but even they've left it alone.

'Our Roots to Transition initiative at Rose Walk has been important in demonstrating that fruit and vegetables can be grown in many different places, look good and provide access to fresh food.

'The public have been invited to pick and use the produce through the season.

'If we can finance these activities in 2015 we're planning to expand.'

If anyone would like to join the team or donate they should email [email protected]">[email protected] or call 01822-820345.