Vandals made a playground unusable and destroyed a children's nature project during two separate attacks in Witham and Maldon.

In the first incident thugs smeared dog mess over equipment at a play area in Bramble Road, Witham.

Outraged Robin Brown noticed the attack in the playground after his two young children Danielle, aged two, and William, five, were about to start playing on the climbing frames.

Vandals had taken bags from dog dirt bins and jumped on them - spraying the contents all over equipment.

Mr Brown, 31, said: "If I'd just sat down and let them run around they would have climbed over it and got the mess all over them," he said.

"I noticed the smell and decided to have a look. My wife stopped Danielle just before she started climbing."

Mr Brown, a fundraising manager for the Essex Air Ambulance, claims the play area has been a magnet for trouble since it was built two years ago.

He says the playground equipment is constantly covered in graffiti.

"Teenagers are always down there drinking and smoking. There are broken beer bottles and God knows what else, but this really takes the biscuit."

Council workers were quick to clean up the mess after it had been reported.

A spokesman for Braintree Council described the incident as a case of "appalling stupidity" which put children's health at risk and could lead to a fine of up to £1,000 if those responsible were caught.

In Maldon weeks of hard work by schoolchildren to create a living shelter in their school grounds was destroyed.

Pupils at All Saints C of E Primary School built a living willow dome on the school site in Highlands Drive, Maldon.

The dome, four metres across and big enough for an adult to stand in or a class of infants to sit in, would have sprouted roots, shoots and leaves to provide much-needed shelter for the pupils in summer, said deputy head Mr Stuart Condie.

But when Mr Condie drove past the school on Easter Saturday he was "shocked and saddened" to see the willow rods broken and scattered and the dome ruined beyond repair.

Maldon police have now been notified of the attack.

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