AN electrical contractor has agreed to put right the damage it caused to an ancient wood in Paddock Wood.

As reported in the Courier on October 22, the unnamed company caused outrage when it devastated 400 square metres of the Foal Hurst Wood nature reserve in Badsell Road.

Protected species including hibernating dormice are believed to have been killed when ancient hedgerows and 300-year-old trees were cleared from beneath overhead power lines without warning.

Landowner Paddock Wood Town Council was left seething and threatening legal action against the company which was acting on behalf of EDF Energy.

But nature warden Steve Songhurst said the company has now apologised for the incident, which was caused by a breakdown in communication.

He said: "They fully understand what they have done wrong. When they saw what they had done they bent over backwards to correct it."

The contractor has agreed to plant new hazel trees and reinstate a hedgerow which is the only way for dormice to travel between Foal Hurst Wood and Brick Kiln Wood to the south.

Preventing this migration could have caused the population to inbreed and die out.