Kent Wildlife Trust has responded to a vandal who caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to signage at a nature reserve, by highlighting how car-parking charges help the charity protect nature.

The retort was posted on their social media channels after the damage signs were discovered at Oare Marshes nature reserve last week. Car parking signage was vandalised with charges covered and replaced with a monopoly-style image of a car declaring “free parking.”

The damaged signs were removed and the charity posted a response to the incident on their social media channels. The post read: “Oare Marshes car park was met with vandalism, where the car-parking charge sign was replaced by a free parking Monopoly sign. We think we have a better idea…” The following photo shows the sign with the free parking crossed out and the added text “Please pay to protect nature.”

Head of Land Management, Simon Bateman-Brown said: “Every motorist who pays for parking is helping us deliver a Wilder Kent as they are directly contributing to our work. We do not make a profit from parking, but it is a valuable contribution that supports the £1.2m annual running costs of our reserves.

“In Oare, money from car-parking has helped us improve water level control, something that makes the area more resilient to climate change, creating a landscape so that migrating birds can be sustained in the long-term, whilst also providing refuge for the amphibians that live here.

“We know many of our visitors come to fill bottles of water from the Artisan well that we maintain on the site, most people would not think twice about spending a few pounds on plastic bottled water, yet this is something on offer, free to our visitors and car-parking charges help us put resources into water quality testing so it is safe to drink.

“We appreciate that people have strong opinions on paying for parking and there is a common misconception we generate income from fines – this is incorrect, a third-party company receives this income, not the charity.

“If any motorist was duped into thinking parking was free by this vandalism and subsequently fined, please get in contact with us so we can contact the car-park management company in an effort to get the charge waived.”

The Trust says they will be installing CCTV at the site and have reported this incident of vandalism to Kent Police.

The charity charges for parking at seven of their 90 reserves across the county, Oare Marshes being one, it costs £2.50 to park on a weekday and £3.50 at weekends, all of the money from those who pay for parking goes towards the management of the reserves.