Over the last two weeks vandals have ripped up the playing surface and strewn bags of dog litter across the lawn at the Harrogate Outdoor Bowling Club in the Valley Gardens.

The problems are similar to those which happened last summer and have prompted the club to buy four video cameras and monitoring equipment in a bid to identify the people responsible.

The club has spent more than £6,000 on improvements over the last 18 months, and club chairman David Hall said the vandalism, which occurred most recently last Saturday and Wednesday night, was ruining things for members and visitors to the Valley Gardens.

Mr Hall, who has been involved with the club for nine years, including two years as chairman, said: "We have had ongoing problems since the start of the season. Youngsters sit under the awning and drink and smoke and do other things they enjoy and we have also found evidence of drugs use.

"They throw their empty beer cans on the floor and they think it is clever to run across the green and spoil the surface. It inhibits play until some of the members can spend a lot of time cleaning it up."

Before last year the club, which currently attracts around 110 members to daily matches and practices during the April-to-September season, had no history of problems in the 75 years it had been running.