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.
He claimed it was to protect locals in the nearby hamlet whose homes had been devastated by previous floods. Price was accused in court of damaging a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and one of the UK’s most important salmon rivers.
