A community woodland group from Llangennech have been angered by the latest incident of anti-social behaviour in their woods.
On the morning of Friday 14th of July, local volunteers from Troserch Woodland Society discovered the charred remains of one of their picnic benches which had been sacrificed for firewood by some unruly visitors to the woods. It is believed that the act took place late at night on Thursday 13th.
The bench, which had been paid for with the group’s limited funds (all from goodwill donations from local people), served an excellent purpose in the round house within the woods, which the woodland is well known for. There is now no table for people to enjoy eating al-fresco in the wonderful surroundings of the area.
Society member and volunteer, Lincoln Grove angrily commented: “It takes a special kind of stupidity to burn something that is obviously not supposed to be burnt when you are completely surrounded by fallen deadwood!”
The society does allow small fires inside the round house, which was built with a smoke outlet for that very purpose, but the burning of built structures is clearly frowned upon.
Society membership secretary, Dan Snaith said: “We are all horrified by this mindless act. As membership secretary, I am more aware than any of the financial generosity of people in this area and beyond, and we rely heavily on that to keep this fantastic community woodland open all year round. We operate totally on a not for profit basis, and any funds we generate are put back into the running of the woods. To see people’s generosity go up in smoke like this is very saddening. We must now think about whether we can justify replacing the bench.”
He added: “This is the latest in a long line of issues we have had to deal with in Troserch. Many flytipping incidents have occurred recently, along with littering and theft. Dealing with all those issues is a complete waste of our time as a committee, and it is time that could be better spent undertaking the numerous day to day tasks of running a large community woodland. Many of those general tasks have to be put back so we can deal with this ridiculous anti-social behaviour!”
If you have any information, please contact Dyfed Powys Police on 101 quoting incident number 3591407.
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