NEW planters in Worcester which were vandalised just days after being set up have been refilled by city businesses. 

The new planters, put in place by Worcester City Council and Worcester BID, had only been in place a short space of time before plants had been pulled out and thrown across the pavement, with rubbish put into the displays.

Now, staff from nearby businesses have replaced the plants.

A Worcester City Council spokesman said: "It is appalling that the beautiful plants installed in Angel Place to help welcome back shoppers and visitors to the city centre have been mindlessly vandalised.

"The incident was caught on CCTV and the images have been passed to the police for investigation. We would like to thank everyone who has rallied round to help get the pop-up park looking its best again, especially Worcester BID and local businesses.”

The flower beds, in Angel Place just outside Crowngate bus station, were only installed last week, on Friday August 6.

Sam McCarthy of Worcester BID said: "We were really disappointed to see the vandalism caused to the planters at Angel Place. This morning [Wednesday] the BID team replanted the area and we were overwhelmed by the support given to us by the community.

Local businesses Colston Bakeries and Crowngate Shopping Centre supplied water and equipment, while Glenys from the Angel Place market supplied us with flowers at a discounted rate.

"Passers-by told us how sad they were to see this destruction and how the pop-up park is a great enhancement to the city.

"Two pop-up parks will be installed in Cornmarket and South Quay this week and we hope those spaces will be as popular with families and as cared for as the one in Angel Place.”

Photographs taken on Monday August 9 at around 9pm showed some of the beds left completely bare, while others had McDonalds cups left in them.

The beds are part of a new seating space installed by Worcester City Council and Worcester BID.

There are plans for similar spaces to be installed in Cornmarket and South Quay this week.