THE day after volunteers started to decorate their town in preparation for the summer’s jubilee celebrations, they were horrified to discover that thieves had stolen reams of bunting.

On Friday, May 18, a team of residents started to put up red, white and blue bunting along Ongar High Street ahead of the town’s Diamond Jubilee year celebrations on bank holiday June 4, to mark 60 years of the Queen’s reign.

The Ongar Town Forum paid for much of the town’s jubilee decorations and the group’s vice-chairman Jeff Tuck, 66, helped to put up the bunting.

He said: “We made a start of it on Friday afternoon and it was looking very good but by 9 the next morning when we came back it had all gone.

“It makes me very angry, you get people doing all of this for the community then these toerags come and pull it all down.

“I am not particularly a monarchist, but these events are important for bringing the community together and what has happened is indefensible.”

Almost 100 feet of bunting stretching across DC Poulton Funeral Directors and neighbouring properties was stolen.

Burak Erceri runs the Fat Turk restaurant in Ongar High Street.

He said: “I helped to put the bunting up on Friday and it is sad that the work was all ruined so quickly.

“I think more CCTV cameras would make people feel a bit more comfortable and if kids, or whoever did it, know there are extra cameras on them there then they would think twice about this kind of thing.”

Ongar will be marking the Diamond Jubilee with their own ‘party in the park’ and jubilee market on Monday, June 4.

It will feature live music, stalls, and will take place in the Ongar Social and Sports Club’s grounds in Love Lane. For further information about the event – or if you would like to offer to help out on the day - ring Sue Hayward on 01277 366511 or email sc.hayward@talktalk.net.

Anyone with information on the theft is asked to call Essex Police on 101.