Bluebells and trees in Colchester woodland have been decimated by mystery vandals.

Machinery has been brought in to bulldoze a wooded area off Layer Road in the town - but no-one knows who is responsible.

Worried neighbours raised the alarm after they noticed that bluebells and established trees had been razed to the ground.

One said: "It has been completely vandalised with a bulldozer. It is disgusting."

As soon as Colchester Council was told about the devastation, it put a protection order on the remaining trees to prevent any further destruction.

Head of development services, Ian Vipond, said: "They haven't destroyed the whole site although they have clearly done some work there. We have put an emergency tree preservation order on the trees to protect the woodland."

The council's tree officer has been down to the site, near Kingsford Park Hotel, to assess the damage.

No permission is officially needed to destroy bluebells and trees unless they are on private land or are protected.

But Colchester Council is still eager to find out who is responsible for the clearance, and why they have done it.

"We are trying to follow up some leads," said Mr Vipond. "There may be some perfectly rational explanation for why they have done this, but our main concern is for the lost woodland."

He added: "The presumption is that whoever has done this will then seek planning permission to build something there, but we don't know what that could be.

"It is a countryside location and we would resist any development anyway."

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