Children and staff at Playday Nursery were left distraught as heartless thieves broke into their gardens and stole the recently installed AstroTurf.
The AstroTurf had been funded by the nursery at a cost of £5000. The children absolutely loved it, describing it as their ‘sparkly grass’. It had transformed the gardens from an area to be avoided during wet weather to one the children could access in any conditions.
Nursery manager Linda Watts spoke of the frustration they felt “we couldn’t believe it. We had worked so hard for so long to save the money to be able to afford the AstroTurf as we knew what a difference it would make to the children who come here. To see the children’s faces was heartbreaking”.
Aycliffe Police have been and have put appeals out via their social media outlets to ask the public to be vigilant and to report any people offering the turf for sale. However for the nursery it looks as though it isn’t going to be replaced, meaning the garden is now worse that ever given the mess the thieves left it in.
Playday have their Family Fun Day on 12th July, sponsored by Newton Press, and are hoping for a good turn out from the local community as they look to raise funds to allow them to replace the AstroTurf.
Linda added “we are desperate to be able to replace the AstroTurf for the children. Thieves are bad enough at the best of times but when it affects unsuspecting children like this it’s even worse. We would love to hear from anyone who has any information, or would like to offer any help to us to replace the AstroTurf. We are improving our security measures with an extension of our CCTV to hopefully ensure this doesn’t happen again”.
