A CONSERVATIVE party candidate in Caerleon has hit out at vandals who caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage to Tory party campaign signs.

Sitting Caerleon councillor Angela Jones and her husband got permission to put two 6ft by 4ft signs, emblazoned with the Welsh Conservative party logo, in a field next to Caerleon bridge.

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But on Thursday evening, Cllr Jones noticed they were missing.

Initially she thought the signs, which cost around £120 each, had been blown down by the wind.

But on closer inspection she found the signs had been sawn off the wooden posts they were secured to the ground with and discarded in the field.

Then overnight on Saturday a smaller sign, worth around £100 put up at her home in Backhall Street had also been removed and pushed through her hedge.

The Red Lion landlady said: "Someone's playing dirty tactics."

"I think it's a bit petty whoever is doing it. It's happened in previous years during local, assembly and general elections."

"My husband has gone to a lot of trouble to put them up in this weather and we have respected other people's signage because it's part of the election campaign."

Cllr Jones, said the Tory group had their suspicions about who was responsible, and had reported the matter to police.

She added the signs would soon be put back up and the situation would be monitored in a bid to catch the person responsible.