A council has been forced to close a skate park after it was severely damaged by vandals.

Yobs have smashed holes in the ramp surfaces at the skate park, behind Rayleigh Leisure Centre, in Priory Chase, Rayleigh.

The deliberate damage has meant that the ramps are now unusable and unsafe.

Rochford Council will now have to fork out £3,000 to make the repairs.

Councillors made the decision to shut the park to stop people using it while they are waiting for repairs to be carried out.

Last year, the council had to shut the park due to a similar incident.

Chris Stanley, Liberal Democrat Rayleigh Town councillor, was outraged.

He said: “It’s just very selfish. It’s crazy some people don’t treat property the way other people would. It’s a bad state of affairs for the town because vandals just won’t stop targeting community facilities. We put new equipment into the play areas like the King George Playing Fields and it just gets abused.”

Mr Stanley is also concerned about the safety of other public places.

He said: “At the Rawreth Playing Fields, we’ve found loads of small gas cannisters and we had to clear it up.

“It’s difficult to say what sort of security measures we can put up. We can’t install CCTV cameras just for the skate park, because their purpose is to survey the entire premises.

“We can’t put up gates around the park because it’s a public area. We can only hope people take care of it like they would do for their own property.”

Rochford councillor Mike Webb urged residents to assist the council with their investigations.

He said: “The district’s parks are there for children and their families to enjoy. Repeated vandalism ruins their fun and this can sometimes put equipment out of action while repairs are made, often at considerable cost to the council taxpayers.

“While we hope that vandals would appreciate the impact of their pointless actions we would ask the public not to tolerate this behaviour and report any incidents they witness to the police.

“We cannot confirm when the park will re-open.” In Billericay, the skate park in Lake Meadows also had to be shut in recent months when vandals wrecked the end panel of the wooden ramp.”