Disappointment as 300 Easter eggs taken from Buxton’s Pavilion Gardens just hours before hunt officially started

Ruth Eyre planned the Easter Egg hunt in Pavilion Gardens for Saturday, April 3 and had hidden 300 eggs around the site for families to find at 11am but in the two hours between hiding the eggs and the hunt starting, all the chocolate treats were taken.

The 34-year-old from Buxton said: “I’m really disappointed. I just wanted to do something nice for people and made it clear on all the information we put out it was one egg per family but it seems people didn’t listen and came before the hunt started which isn’t fair.”

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Due to covid restrictions Ruth was told she could not run the event as she wanted with people collecting tokens and swapping them for an egg as this made it an organised event which is not yet allowed so she hid the eggs, which were all donated including some from Buxton’s Morrisons store, around the gardens at 9am trusting people would not take advantage.

But when families came down at the agreed start time they were upset to find all the eggs had already been picked up.

Ruth said: “I’ve had people messaging me saying I’ve ruined their Easter and their children were so upset. Well so am I and I don’t need messages from people blaming me, I was just trying to make people smile. This was a free event to spread a bit of kindness.

"I left just after 9am hiding the eggs thinking they would be fine for two hours but we will never know if the eggs were taken by teenagers who saw them and didn’t know about the hunt but just saw free chocolate or it was a struggling family who was worried about making sure their children wouldn’t miss out or greedy people who took more.”

Paul Kelsall, general manager for the Pavilion Gardens added: “I recognise and applaud the intentions of the organisers and we’re disheartened by the issues they faced.

"The egg hunt was not hosted by Pavilion Gardens and in no way were the staff involved in the collection of the eggs.”

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