Bungay’s deputy mayor has labelled local vandals “morons” after the town’s newly installed ping pong tables were damaged.

Bob Prior said he had heard some of the bats had gone missing along with the balls on Friday morning (September 13), but said by the afternoon the tables had also been damaged.

He said: "This is what some morons have done to effectively make thousands of pounds of equipment unusable for anyone else. I'm struggling to be polite. The anger I feel is enormous.

"When we try and improve the facilities for all, but mainly focusing on the youth, it's just thrown back in our faces."

The ping pong tables were installed within the last week at the Old Grammar Lane play area in Garden Close and on Meadow Road as part of a public initiative called Ping! run by Table Tennis England and the Most Active County partnership with Suffolk County Council.

The scheme hopes to make the sport more accessible and encourage the community to maintain good health.

Mr Prior said: "We were out walking in the play area and noticed the bat broken up on the floor, and a piece of the table broken up as well as the ball dispenser snapped off.

"It made me feel very angry and sad."

The tables cost between £700 and £1,000 each, and had been there for less than a week. Bungay Town Council has extra bats and balls in stock and said it will replace the damaged ones, but Mr Prior said he was worried it would just happen again.

Mr Prior added: "These prats have no thought to anyone else but themselves and some sort of perverted sense of self-gratification. I believe that the parents ought to take responsibility.

"It's unprintable what I would say to the people responsible."

The town has been preparing for a launch event for the tables on Saturday, September 21, which will still be going ahead.