Residents of a busy Ipswich road are up in arms after an wildlife-rich hedge was ripped out to make way for a new bungalow to be built.

Now the owners of the land could face legal action from a neighbour whose land is bordered by the hedge and who may own part of it.

Residents of Tuddenham Road became concerned when diggers moved on to the plot last Thursday – there is outline planning permission for a bungalow to be built on the site.

After calling local councillor Inga Lockington, who then called council officials, work on the hedge stopped.

But two days later – early on Saturday morning – the digger returned and the hedge was removed. Mike Novosad owns Redhouse Farm, and his drive is next to the hedge. During the work his telephone cable was cut – he believes he owns part of the hedge and he has consulted his solicitor.

He said: “I got a call on Thursday morning early and went out to see what was happening. I told the chap on the digger he could not do this, and then the people from the council came along and everything stopped.

“But two days later they returned and this time pulled it out.”

The owner of the plot, Michael Kimble, said the hedge was completely on his land and he had taken care to check things were in order before it was pulled up.

“I checked with the council and there were no planning reasons not to pull up the hedge.” He had also found that the bird nesting season ran from April to the end of July, so felt it was safe to pull it up now.

“Hedges are protected if they are next to fields or nature reserves, but not those next to homes,” he added.

A spokesman for the borough said the work did not contravene planning regulations – however Natural England said it recommended there should be no work on hedgerows during the mating season, from March 1 to July 31.

One angry resident said: “It was so sad. There was a blackbird trying to protect its nest hissing at the digger – it made me weep!”