Two residents in Chudleigh Knighton are in shock after a developer demolished half of a boundary hedge at the end of their gardens, taking with it mature trees and bushes.

Sharon Studdy and Elizabeth White, who live at 25 and 27 River Valley Road, rose last Wednesday and discovered men, who were working under instructions from Stone Park Southwest Ltd Property Developments in Ipplepen, cutting down trees on the Devon bank that separates their back gardens from Bellamarsh Lane. The work was being done to gain better access to the back of the garage site on the main road which is going to be a housing development.

Mrs White, who is currently recuperating from a cancer operation she underwent last month, immediately spoke to the men and told them that her house deeds showed that she was the owner of the boundary hedge and that she owned two metres from the path that runs across the back of her garden out into the lane and incorporating the Devon bank boundary.

She then rang the owner of Stone Park Developments, Lewis Parker, on his mobile phone in Ibiza, where he was on holiday, and informed him that she was the owner of the land 12 feet from her path, out the back into Bellamarsh Lane, and that included the boundary hedge.

Mr Parker told Mrs White to ask the men to stop and that he would personally come and visit her on Monday to discuss the contested boundary.

On Thursday morning, however, another group of men arrived, DJB Haulage, this time with bulldozers and heavy machinery, and proceeded to remove part of the bank.

When Mrs White and Mrs Studdy remonstrated with them they said they were simply sub-contractors for Stone Park Developments and if they didn't do the work they wouldn't get paid.

They also informed the houseowners that the Stone Park Developments had indemnity insurance that would cover the situation.

When Mrs White rang Mr Parker to ask him why his company was going ahead despite the boundary dispute issue, she was told that there was no proof that the lane belonged to anybody.

'They have effectively laid claim to it,' said Mrs White. 'And that seems to give them the right to do what they like. We have contacted a solicitor but the work has continued outside.

County Cllr Nolan Clarke advised the residents to tell the men they were acting recklessly in removing a disputed boundary hedge and to put it in writing and sign it and give it to them.

Unfortunately, by that time the men had already removed approximately two feet of the Devon bank, enough to give them the 5.8 metres width they needed for the access road.

Cllr Clarke also rang up Teignbridge Council and asked it to send a restraining officer out to persuade the men to stop but none arrived.

'Nobody came and told us they were going to do this,' said Mrs White.

'I bought a house in the country with a lane at the back 26 years ago. The sycamore and hawthorn went all the way down and I bought this particular house for the privacy at the back.

They have taken away half the old boundary wall which used to be thick with trees and bushes – we couldn't see through it.'

Teignbridge Council planning officer Nick Davies told the residents that planning permission had not been given to Stone Park Developments and advised the worried residents to put the matter into the hands of a solicitor, but said it was a civil matter and the council couldn't stop them starting work before permission had been granted.

The police also said they could do nothing because it was a civil matter.

'They have got their access road now,' said Mrs White at noon on Thursday when the foreman of DJB Haulage informed her they were finished.

'It is now a legal matter,' said Mrs White. 'I have put it into the hands of a solicitor.'

Mr Parker told this newspaper that his company had checked the title deeds well in advance of doing the work.

'It was all part of the development work for the garage. The hedges on Bellamarsh Lane had been allowed to overgrow.

'They hadn't been cut for 30 or 40 years so we have tidied it up a bit. I have a number of Devon hedges where I live so I know what they are supposed to look like and that one was overgrown.

'I've been and looked at the work and I don't see a problem. The title deeds show it is a public highway – it doesn't belong to them at all but they feel it does.

'We have done nothing that we should be reprimanded for.

'We have done everything to the book. We put an advertisement of the application for proposed developments in the Mid Devon Advertiser and no-one came forward.'

Tom Oliver, the Campaign to Protect Rural England's head of rural policy, said that proposed amendments to the hedgerow regulations were expected soon to protect all hedges along roads and public rights of way.

'The character of a place in England is determined by structures that define it and the most significant are boundaries.

'The question is whether their removal would represent significant damage to the landscape and habitat. These regulations cover certain circumstances but they don't cover them all. It is important they are improved.'