I HAVE lived in Malvern all my life and have thrown bread to the ducks in Priory Park as a child and now as a mother with my daughter.

On the second day of the school summer holidays, I heard there were ducklings on the pond, so my daughter, who is eight, and myself decided as it had just stopped raining to pay them a visit with the mandatory slices of bread.

On arrival at the park, having left my car in South Lea and skirted around the barriers at the front of the Splash, we went to the pond.

Yes there were ducklings on the island, all fluffy and cute. We had just started to throw the bread into the water when from the corner of my eye I saw two youths pulling up flowers from the flowerbeds, they were also chasing the ducks and throwing stones at them.

Without thinking I yelled at them to stop and told them to get out of the park. They were joined by another two boys, who had been sitting in the covered seating areas and the language they used was very colourful and their behaviour towards me was bordering on threatening.

We finished feeding the ducks, ignoring the youths, and then went into the fitness club at the Splash to ask them if they knew if there was a park warden, they did not, they did however offer to phone the police. We then went into the Winter Gardens and were told they had reported similar anti-social behaviour to the police the previous day.

On returning home I decided that I should inform the person in charge of Priory Park and let them know what was going on.

I phoned Malvern Hills District Council and was told to phone Malvern Town Council. The town council then told me to phone the district council. I eventually spoke to an administrator at the district council, who said she would inform the gardeners so they could re-plant, however she did not know who I should talk to with regards to the anti-social behaviour other than the police.

I find it staggering that only two days into the holidays, these young thugs are already behaving in such a manner and that there appears to be nobody around to stop them.

I would like to suggest that surely it is possible for extra funding to be found so that Priory Park can have a park keeper or someone similar for a least the duration of the summer. I fear that without the presence of someone official on the spot, this type of behaviour will just escalate to the point where good citizens just wanting to enjoy the park and the surroundings, feeding the ducks and having a picnic will go elsewhere and that could lead to even less people going into Great Malvern.

Not only am I sad and cross about the behaviour of the lads in the park but it seems utterly pointless to re-plant the flowerbeds if nothing is going to happen to discourage the anti-social activities which are taking place within the park.

Josephine Bowen, Hawthorn Lane, Malvern.