Vandals badly damage Fife sports pitch just one month after it re-opened

Fife Council's communities and leisure spokesperson Linda Erskine (Lochgelly, Cardenden and Benarty, Labour) said she was “absolutely disgusted” by the news.

“This mindless act of vandalism has implications for all the youngsters that use this facility and who have been looking forward to their new pitch,” she said. “To have it damaged in this way so soon after it was opened is really disappointing. I know our police colleagues will be keen to speak to anyone who has any information about this crime."

Fife Council shared a photo of the damaged pitch, showing scorched earth beneath a burnt and damaged goal. The £200,000 project to replace the pitch was funded by Fife Council with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and Scottish Football Association’s (SFA) Grassroots pitch and facilities.

Cllr Erskine said the pitch was well-used by both the school and local community. It is also home to the Duloch Juniors FC.

On Facebook, the club said it was "deeply disappointed" to share that the new astro training pitch had been vandalised.

"This was supposed to be a state-of-the-art third generation pitch for everyone to use - we're now looking at a repair bill of thousands of pounds - It's not acceptable,” Cllr Erskine said.

Inspector Neil McGurk added: “Vandalism such as this is utterly mindless and causes unnecessary disruption to both the school and wider community.”

Anyone with information can call 101, quoting reference 1656 of 25 June.