Parkgoers have expressed their fury after a row of cherry trees were torn down by vandals. Six of the trees in the Cherry Tree Avenue in Preston Park, Brighton , were snapped in half on Saturday night. Kerry Pickett, chairwoman of the Friends of Preston Park group and Green councillor for Preston Park ward, told The Argus: "We kind of knew this was going to happen but it is not going to stop us.
"We bought extra trees a while back so we are hoping we have enough. "It is upsetting as the park was looking really good, but we are defiant and we will be replanting new trees and will try to see how we can protect them further. One of the broken trees (Image: Friends of Preston Park) READ MORE: Shock after tree 'torn down' by vandals "We will overcome this.
"Unfortunately, the people who do these sorts of things don't realise the park belongs to them too. "We have entered our rose garden into a small parks competition and were thinking we don't have to worry about the cherry trees as much but sadly we were wrong." Trees in the same place in the same park were targeted in April 2022.
They were part of a collection of 60 trees, costing over £8,000 in total, that the Friends of Preston Park group had paid for through members' own fundraising. Six of the trees which line the path to the tennis courts have been broken (Image: Friends of Preston Park) Cllr Pickett said: "We won't be able to replace them until the autumn as the summer is not a good time to plant trees. The ground will be.
