The grounds of Pontnewydd primary school were broken into on Friday night. The vandals used paint they accessed from the school to cover the playground and play equipment in the nursery.

They also smashed garden ornaments and damaged trees in the school grounds. Torfaen Property Officer Andrew Harrison also happens to be vice chair of governors at the school.

“The caretaker at the school notified us of the damage and I was very shocked to see the extent of it,” he said.

“They’ve deliberately targeted the nursery play area with paint they took from the school. It will cost hundreds of pounds to repair the damage.”

Cllr John Cunningham, executive member for Neighbourhood Services, added: “This is another example of mindless vandalism. We do not tolerate this behaviour, we recently secured successful prosecutions against the vandals who torched play equipment at Cwmbran boating lake and we will be treating this in the same way.

“We put an appeal for information out on our social media channels and reached more than 6,000 people in just over an hour, we urge anyone with information to contact Gwent Police.”

You can call Gwent Police on 150 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.