VANDALS who broke a commemorative stone unveiled this summer as part of Devizes twinning link with two European towns have been condemned by the town Mayor Nigel Carter.

The giant stones next to The Crammer on The Green took centre stage back in June when Mr Carter and the mayors from towns in Mayenne, France and Waiblingen, Germany celebrated 50 years of the twinning link.

He said: "This is just mindless vandalism. More and more people are commenting on what a lovely town Devizes is but there is a very small minority set on spoiling it."

Former Mayor Sue Evans also condemned the culprits. She said: "It is dreadful. Just mindless destruction."

Damage to the stones was reported to Devizes Town Council on Monday but it is not known exactly when the vandalism occurred. Deputy town clerk Simon Fisher said he thought the damage could be repaired quite quickly but he also said it was disappointing for the damage to have occurred. He said: "It would have taken some force to make this happen."

Noel Woolrych a leading member of the Devizes Twinning Association and manager of the town's CCTV system said: "It is very sad that some people can show no respect. The lintel came from a historic building in Mayenne. When I drove past and saw what had happened I was very disappointed."

He said a central piece of the stone was now missing and he feared it had been thrown into The Crammer pond. He said: "It is sandstone so can be replaced but that is not the point."

He now hopes that a new CCTV camera could be placed outside Morrisons supermarket to catch anti social behaviour on The Green." He said that CCTV in the town centre had had a dramatic effect on reducing vandalism and no plate glass shop windows had been broken in the past year and it had been three years since any flower decorations had been vandalised.

He said: "There seems to be a growing problem of low level anti-social behaviour in this part of town and this causes annoyance. Before the CCTV in the town centre there used be between 17 and 20 plate glass windows smashed each year now there are none."

Back in June scores of people gathered on The Green for the dedication of the stones to mark the twinning tie that goes back 50 years.