A local woman has been left devastated after two memorial trees that she planted in memory of her grandparents were snapped and destroyed last week.

Hannah Lerego, who is also a member of Ross Town Council, planted two cherry blossom trees in May, in the Caroline Symmonds Garden Memorial Arboretum, opposite the Bandstand, in memory of her late grandparents, Betty and Ivor Sleeman, and Iris and Bill Lerego.

Hannah told the Ross Gazette that she had been due to show off the trees to members of her family on Sunday, she had planted them in May, but had kept them a secret until recently, when she celebrated her 40th birthday. She said that she wanted to make sure the trees were established before other members of her family saw them.

However, on Saturday morning, Hannah discovered that all of the branches on both trees had been snapped deliberately. She was especially upset as she had put in months of work to make sure they grew, but her family never got to see the fruit of her efforts, as they did not get to see the trees until they were snapped and broken.

The stake which held up one of the trees was split and smashed in two, which Hannah said would have taken considerable force. The tree trunk was also broken, which will mean that the plant will die. The other tree has been halved in height due to damage.

Hannah estimates that the trees were damaged between Thursday evening and 10am on Saturday.

Hannah commented: “The person who did these things and destroyed my trees has my pity. If their life is so devoid of being or love that they deliberately seek out other people’s acts of memorial to their beloved relatives and spend their energy to break them apart, they are seriously lacking in any life purpose or any compassion and that is very sad indeed.”

She added: “Those four lovely people really loved living in Ross, loved its people and one was even Mayor of our lovely Town.”

Hannah added: “I loved my grandparents and will continue to honour their memory and will replace the trees.”

She implored the vandals: “If there is any decency within you, take this opportunity to stop and instead just do something constructive with your life.”

The incident has been reported to the police. Please call 101 if you have any information that you think could help officers in their investigation.