On Friday, Shotton Residents Association chairman Steve Maitland said the tree had been put up as a monument to the fallen soldiers of World War One.
He told BBC Radio Tees that members of the public were making a sleeve for the tree’s base, so they could bolt it back up as quickly as possible, “just to tide us over for Christmas”.
He said: “These people who did this – I don’t think they understand the history and the feeling of these things.”
Some of the people involved in fundraising for the tree a decade ago had since died, he said.
He called the attack “mindless vandalism” but said he could not “turn the clock back”.
