THE women of the Droitwich based SPArkles WI, have been left saddened after their efforts to yarnbomb Vines Park, were ripped down and binned, only a day before they were due to be donated to charity.

The keen knitters had been up at 6am on Saturday, September 12 at the start of Salt Fest, carefully decorating features in the park, with colourful knitting.

Reams of wool went into the efforts, which all had a canal theme, and the WI members had intended to knit the larger sections together to make blankets for homeless charities, saving the smaller pieces to donate to local schools to inspire schoolchildren to get creative.

The yarnbombed park was still intact on Monday when a member of the WI checked up on it, and the members had been planning to eventually take their handiwork down on Thursday evening, but on Wednesday, they were informed by Wychavon District Council that the knitting had been found, torn down and stuffed in a bin.

SPArkles President Helen Starks said: “We are gutted because not only was this a labour of love, and lots of hard work, we wanted this to continue to benefit the local community.

“We were so delighted with the respect that had been shown to the yarn-bombing as it had survived the weekend – but this has really disappointed us and now the park looks quite bare!”

Earlier this year members of the Rotary Club yarnbombed St Andrew’s Square, donating all of the wool used to homeless charities.

Sergeant Sarah Kent from Droitwich Safer Neighbourhood Team, said the incident has not been officially reported to the police, but they were aware of it. That section of the park is covered by CCTV, but it is positioned too far away for anyone to be able to identify those responsible.