VILLAGERS in Crofton are furious after the sound of chainsaws blared out last week, desecrating a nearby wildlife habitat which they claim was home to kingfishers as well as other wild birds and mammals.

"It's an environmental disaster," protestor Emma Brown said. "This is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, it's like deforestation, it's totally wrong."

Network Rail were behind the clearance work, which has razed scrub and trees on the railway embankment between the London mainline and the Kennet and Avon Canal to the ground.

"They've absolutely decimated the embankment, it was full of birdlife nesting, there was a kingfisher there which we have not seen since," Mrs Brown said. "I have lived here for five years, it's such a beautiful area and I and all my neighbours are so upset."

She contacted Network Rail to complain about the works, to be told they were planned maintenance needed to keep the railway track safe from falling trees and leaves, and that the eight-metre splay for cutting was a standard width worked to nationwide.

"It is absolutely the worst and wrong time of year to be cutting down hedgerows and trees as far as the nesting birds are concerned," she said. "It is an natural habitat environmental strip which is not accessed by humans or dogs so therefore perfect for wildlife as totally undisturbed.

"The cutting has been done on the downward slope of the embankment where gravity will dictate that trees etc will fall in to the canal, not fly upwards on to the railway lines. If the embankment sloped on to the railway line it would clearly be another matter."

Network Rail have been asked for a comment on this story.