A FAMILY have been left “devastated” after diggers destroyed part of the nature reserve in their garden when they had “no right to be there.”

Father of four Peter Brooker was woken by his ten-year-old daughter Holly last Saturday morning when she saw a workman uprooting trees and flattening a fence while she was out playing with their dog.

Mr Brooker went to the bottom of his garden in Whitecroft Road, Meldreth, to find two diggers had ripped out several trees containing bird and bat boxes and unearthed bluebell patches, sapling hedges, fruit trees and bee orchids.

He said: “We run our garden as a wildlife haven and to have this done has devastated us.

“When I was woken by Holly, who was very distressed, I went to the bottom of the garden and was shocked to find the diggers on our property.

“I turned the air blue shouting at them because I was angry as they had no right to be there. They eventually stopped and said they were only working as contractors.”

The workmen were working on behalf of Bloor Homes who are currently building a 20-home development on the land at the back of their home.

They told Mr Brooker that their GPS system, which measures coordinates for where they are allowed to build, said they were permitted to be there.

He has since been to Land Registry but they haven’t yet been able to confirm where Mr Brooker’s boundary ends.

“Land Registry said they were not in a position to confirm my fence was in the wrong place as Bloor Homes claim it is, but said they don’t understand why the developers are so adamant they are allowed to develop there,” he said.

“I have been in discussion with solicitors to try and prove once and for all that they are wrong.

“I couldn’t give the damage a monetary value, but there are wild flowers we have been nurturing over the years as well as all the trees and orchids.

“The reserve is home to bats, birds, frogs, squirrels and insects and I dread to think what damage has been done to them.”

The land is formally part of Bluebell Cottage, but was sold to the previous owners of the home before the Brookers moved there in 2002.

The Crow attempted to contact Bloor Homes but no one was available to comment.