A gang of teenagers has delayed the opening of an £80,000 play area in a south Shropshire town after breaking into the site and destroying newly-laid turf by trampling on it.

Church Stretton’s mayor Bob Welch said he caught the group of about eight teenagers who broke into the half-finished Brooksbury Nature Play Area on the Richard Robinson Field in the town on Sunday afternoon.

He said their actions had now delayed the project for up to a month because the turf would need to be relaid and would have to settle for at least three weeks before it could be walked on.

Emma Alston, of the Church Stretton Play Area Action Group, said today that the damage could cost up to £3,000 to put right.

She said: “The longer we have it held up, the longer it is until it opens.”

She added that members of the group would now go into the town’s schools and talk to the children about taking responsibility for the play area.

The town council has worked to secure funding of up to £80,000 for phase one of the project. Another £50,000 still needs to be found for the second phase which will involve creating an area for toddlers.

Councillor Welch said: “What they did is senseless and costly. It will only delay the project.

“Someone had tampered with the fence so that they could break in. There were signs up saying ‘keep out’. It was very dangerous for them to be in there. I don’t suppose for a minute that they thought that charging about on the turf would be so costly.”

The site was due to open by the middle of this month but organisers say it will now be put back a month.