The badgers strike again! Huge holes dug in Brierley Hill gardens

The hole at the top of Rosemary Tomkinson's garden in Seager's Lane, Brierley Hill, measures around three metres across, creating a dangerous opening which has made the area inaccessible.

And it is not just one garden but six in the street which have been badly affected.

The road is just three miles away from Short Street, Stourbridge, where residents recently told the Express & Star of fears the ground in their gardens could cave in, having faced similar problems.

Mrs Tomkinson, a former Dudley mayor, said: "It is a 'no-go' area now. I had plans for moving the old swing and doing things at that end of the garden but I cannot do that now.

"One of the worst things was when they dug up all my tulip bulbs which my daughter had kindly planted for me.

"She had also done a display for me in the gazebo but the badgers came in and knocked it all over. It is awful when someone has done something like that for you."

Mrs Tomkinson, aged 79, said she first noticed badger holes in her neighbour's garden around two years ago.

At first she thought about filling the hole with dirt or rocks but was told doing so would be illegal.

She then contacted Natural England but said she could not afford their proposed solutions which included chain-link and electrical fencing.

Although some parts of the country have carried out a cull of badgers to protect cows from bovine tuberculosis, they are a protected species and the authorities face a headache over how best to remove them.

"I would like for the badgers to be mapped across the borough and see if breeding can be controlled somehow," she added.

"It is not our livelihood being lost but the joy of the garden is gone. You go outside and you just think 'what are they going to have done this time?'"