VANDALS branded as "despicable" have forced a Kidderminster disabled people's club's ambulance - used for emergencies and to transport wheelchair users to meetings - off the road after smashing its lights.

The charitable group, Kidderminster and District Disabled Club, previously under the umbrella of the Red Cross until five years ago, is now solely funded by kind-hearted donations from the public.

It took the club five years to raise enough money to buy the ambulance used to take members in wheelchairs to meetings and for emergency use but, last Wednesday, the club secretary, Fred Ballard, spotted that the rear lights were missing on the vehicle.

Vandals had unscrewed the light fittings and cut the wires, leaving the club without a vehicle for emergency and social use.

It has been estimated that the ambulance lights will cost £600 to fix, which has come at a difficult time for the cash-strapped club, which has to rely on the generosity of the public and fund-raising events to keep the service going.

The organisation, set up in the 1960s, takes around 30 people for a half-day meeting in Kidderminster every week.

Secretary, Fred Ballard, said: "I just find it despicable that somebody could do that to anyone's property - let alone that belonging to a charity. We will have to pay for the repair ourselves and, in the meantime, we cannot use the vehicle.

"We take around 30 people a week to a half-day meeting in Kidderminster and drivers take them in and back home again. This event gives the person a half-day away from home and gives their carers a short respite."

The club also raises £8,000 a year to take 55 members to a holiday camp once a year, as well as treating members to a Christmas meal.

The group recently bought the ambulance but still needs an extra £2,000 to update and overhaul it.

Chairman, Shirley Gledhill, added: "Most of our members do travel to the club by private car but it will be those in wheelchairs, who are usually picked up, who will suffer. Hopefully, though, we will get the repair work done before the club starts up again in February.

"Those who know about the incident are deeply upset by it. It's just such a shame and so sad that we had to raise the money to buy the vehicle off the Red Cross and, within a few months, it's vandalised and we have to find more money."