COMMUNITY councillors were “saddened and sickened” after vandals smashed the floodlight at Wallyford’s mining memorial stone.

Alister Hadden, a member of Wallyford Community Council, went to water floral tributes at the site in the St Clements housing estate on Sunday and noticed the high-quality strength glass was broken beyond repair.

He said the floodlight had been illuminating the memorial in the hours of darkness for the past six years and was a gift from an electrical company.

He said: “Have those who carry out such acts of vandalism no thought for their industrial coal mining heritage and for the 38 miners who lost their lives in Wallyford collieries bringing coal to the surface to give us fuel that we used for cooking and to heat our homes?”

Mr Hadden added that the community council spent years trying to provide tributes for those who paid with their lives down the coal pits.

He said: “Our mining stone in Wallyford is a tribute to those who perished below ground in very dirty, dim, dark, filthy conditions and to those who died early in life prematurely due to their working conditions, and other related coal mining illnesses.

“This is recognised each year with our gala king and queen laying a floral tribute at the stone on gala day to remember them.”

He doubted whether the light would be replaced, adding: “Now our light that was first installed in 2010 that shone for them will have to be removed and the area paved over, plunging our memorial stone back into darkness due to deliberate acts of vandalism.”

Mr Hadden said: “Things like this should just not happen as we are all custodians of our communities.”