DEVELOPERS have apologised after ripping out a hedge bordering the home of a widow in York.

Shirley Clayton, 76, was distraught when she saw the laurel hedge alongside her back garden in Severus Avenue, Acomb, had been torn down.

The work had been done despite a planning ruling stating the hedge should be left intact.

City of York Council stipulated that the hedge must stay when they granted permission for a bungalow to be converted and two additional detached homes to be built on land next door to Mrs Clayton.

But Mrs Clayton said workers on the site had removed the hedge and left her conservatory looking straight into the kitchen of one of the new houses.

She said: “The hedge was really mature and was a few metres tall. It probably needed cutting back, but when I saw the man cutting it down, I went out and told him it wasn’t to be touched.

“We agreed then that since he had started cutting it down, that he could take it back as far as the end of my house, but he just kept going and now it’s nearly all gone.

“I’m just sad that they have done this because I really enjoyed watching the birds popping in and out of the hedge and going to the feeders in my garden.

“I’ve also got a small dog and it means I daren’t let the dog out in the back garden because it could get out now the hedge has gone.”

A spokesman for Robert Burn Designs, who are working on the site next door to Mrs Clayton, said they had spoken to her and agreed to put up a fence and plant a laurel hedge where the old hedge had been. The spokesman said: “It was a mistake to remove the hedge.

“We had permission from City of York Council to remove one of the trees on the site.

“Mistakenly one of the contractors has taken the hedge down as well.

“I have spoken to Mrs Clayton and we will be putting the fence back and replacing the laurel hedge.”

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: “We are in touch with the developers and we are looking into the concerns that have been raised.”