MINDLESS vandals have been warned their "card is marked" following the uprooting of plants from tubs, window boxes and hanging baskets at Alton Station. The incident, which is thought to have occurred overnight on Wednesday last week, has been chalked down as "unacceptable" by station staff and they will not take kindly to a repetition. According to Mid-Hants Railway volunteer Joan Richardson, the plants had been uprooted and strewn around the platform, leaving the whole area looking dishevelled. "The culprits even had the audacity to plant an empty beer can in one of the tubs," she said. Responsible for many years for the Mid-Hants Railway's prize-winning Alton in Bloom efforts on platform three, the local octogenarian has been enlisted this year to provide a similar show for South West Trains. Having spent four days planting to make the steam line side of the station look attractive, Mrs Richardson spent a further two days designing and planting up boxes, tubs and baskets for SWT on platforms one and two. She had chosen colour schemes to reflect the company colours - blue, white and orange for SWT and green and yellow for the Mid-Hants Railway. Having thrown time and energy into helping SWT in its quest to make Alton Station look more attractive for main line passengers, Mrs Richardson was furious when she returned from holiday to be told that vandals had struck. She told The Herald: "It's not just the cost of replacing the plants, it's the time spent putting them in. It was just a mindless act of vandalism, and SWT is on the case."