A farmer who hired diggers and builders to illegally rip up trees in a beauty spot has been jailed and ordered to pay £1.2million in restoration costs.
John Price, 68, claimed he bulldozed the trees along the River Lugg near Leominster, Herefordshire, to protect homes from flooding.
He used an 18-tonne digger to dredge a section of the river and stripped a mile-long stretch of the bank of trees in December 2020.
