TWO teenagers who burned a playhouse at an Evesham charity to the ground have been given 50 hours’ community service and ordered to pay £600 each.

The 14-year-olds set fire to the piece of equipment used by children with learning difficulties at Avon Vale Special Needs Playgroup on July 17, completely destroying it and causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage to the surrounding area.

The playhouse is on land rented by the charity from Evesham Adventure Playground, also a charity, at Woodlands, near Davies Road. Evesham police tracked down the offenders and chose to deal with the crime by making the two teenagers subject of a community resolution order, rather than the matter being brought to court.

Both will carry out work in the community for 50 hours and pay £600, which will go towards replacing and repairing what was damaged.

Avon Vale playgroup will use its £600 to replace the playhouse and its contents and the Evesham Adventure Playground will use the other £600 to repair damage to the surrounding area such as fencing and grass.

Community resolution orders are often used in ‘low level’ crime and if the victim agrees with the proposed course of action in dealing with the offence, it avoids a potentially costly court case.

The incident was the third attack at the Evesham site in just two months and Kath Jones from the adventure playground warned that services would have to be cut back if the vandalism continued.