Children at a Moray nursery had their dreams crushed by a thief who ran off with a tree which was destined to be the centrepiece to their outdoor classroom.
The youngsters at the Rainbow childcare and education centre in Forres had earmarked the giant, which toppled over in last week’s storms, and got permission from council bosses to put it to good use.
On Wednesday night, Denise Gibbon, manager of the centre, went to show council staff how much of the tree she wanted and the trunk was prepared for transportation the next day.
However, she and the children were shocked on Thursday morning to discover somebody had stolen “their” tree overnight.
Ms Gibbon said: “The children were really disappointed.
“The workmen cut off all the branches, but there were a few big pieces left overnight, and some opportunist from Forres came along with a chainsaw, thought ‘I’ll have that’ and chopped it up and took it home.
“People must have seen them and thought it was just the workmen doing overtime. And they must have had some serious equipment – the council would have needed a tractor to bring it down here in one piece because it was so weighty.
“The guy from the council who told us said they would find us a tree trunk from somewhere else.
“We will get a tree and we will have happy children, but we need to shame whoever took it.”
Forres councillor Aaron McLean, whose own child goes to the nursery, said last night: “It’s absolutely ridiculous that somebody would do that overnight, when it was quite well publicised that the tree was going to the nursery for the kids to play on.”
Speaking yesterday, Moray Council’s assistant lands and parks officer Grant Speed assured the Rainbow youngsters that a replacement would be found for them.
He said: “It’s unfortunate somebody has decided to help themselves to the tree, when it was earmarked for the kids’ nursery.
“I don’t think whoever took it would have known that though, they probably thought they were helping us out by removing it.
“We will keep in touch with the nursery and replace the tree as soon as possible.”