THE vandalised Geoneedle and information boards at Orcombe Point, will be repaired - but not until next year.

THE vandalised Geoneedle and information boards at Orcombe Point, will be repaired - but not until next year.

Yobs had knocked chunks out of the especially commissioned stone marker, one of two built to inaugurate the World Heritage Site - and then someone bizarrely tried to repair the damage using filler.

Vandals had also defaced the two information boards on two information pedestals - making them unreadable, so the plaque giving information on the Heritage Site's rock strata had been removed by the County Council.

Leslie Garlick of Devon County Council has responsibility for the site and said that the same company who originally constructed the needle were looking to start repairs this year.

But they were looking at various options for a more 'permanent solution' for the plinths, so they would be robust enough to withstand any future attacks - and that may not be until March or April 2009.

One option is to replace the pedestals with stone blocks, with the information integrated into it, so they couldn't be removed defaced.

She said: "We are looking at replacing the information boards, perhaps with stone plinths and that would be more permanent solution and we have been asking for and received quotes to repair the damage.

"But the repairing of the information boards definitely won't be this summer, but more likely before the end of the financial year."

Orcombe Point marks the most Westerly boundary of the Jurassic Coast and was opened in 2002 by Prince Charles.