VANDALS have cost the local taxpayers in East Ayrshire more than £20,000 in the last year.

The new figure has almost doubled in the last year.

New figures have shown that East Ayrshire Council were forced to cough up £21,689 in 2015/16 to repair vandalism at local schools. That dwarves the amount spent last years total of £11,428.

The numbers, released this week by the Scottish Conservatives, show that across the whole of Ayrshire councils had to fork out almost £116,000 in a year.

North Ayrshire Council were hit with a £60,083 bill whilst neighbouring South Ayrshire Council were stung for £34,161.

Dumfries and Galloway Council had to spend £12,516 on repairs. That was up on last years figure of £10,869.

The bill for repairing vandalism in schools across Scotland totalled a shocking £4.5 million for the last five years.

Across the country the total for 2015/16 was an increase of more than £100,000 from the previous year.

Fife topped the list, shelling out a whopping £192,000, closely followed by the astounding £155,000 spent in Aberdeen

The figures show the cost of damage caused either by pupils or others outwith school hours.

Incidents included broken windows, damage to toilets and graffiti.

Alan Ward, East Ayrshire Council’s Head of Education said: “Vandalism against any property, or building, is unwelcome and is especially deplorable in a school where it directly affects the children and young people in our community.

“Damage of any kind is unacceptable and the costs of repair come from public funds, making it an additional and needless drain on valuable resources.”

Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said: “It’s very worrying that vandals continue to regard schools as fair game.

“Our councils are hard-pressed enough without having to fork out for needless repairs like this.

“People ought to remember that these are supposed to be safe environments for children to learn and teachers to operate.

“That cannot be the case when they arrive in the morning to find damage to their space.

“Anyone caught vandalising schools should be dealt with firmly to ensure similar behaviour is not repeated in future.”