And the “mad” chirping near Chandos Street car park, where the gardening work took place on April 30, led a town shop manager to contact the Courier with her concerns.

Melissa Heppenstall, who works at T & H Motors in Oxford Street, had taken her dog to the vets in Guy Street near the car park when staff commented on the noise.

The Radford Semele resident said: “I heard all the birds chirping madly.

“I couldn’t believe they were cutting all those hedge rows down. I was a bit incensed.”

Miss Heppenstall said she was worried that nests and eggs had been “decimated” by the work carried out by Warwick District Council’s parks contractor Glendale.

And she asked why the hedge cutting had happened during nesting season.

She said: “Do they not know that the birds are a month into nesting?

“I would like to know who made the decision to carry out this action at this time of year.

“Even the most naive gardener knows not to prune anything with that sort of green growth in late spring.”

Miss Heppenstall said she had seen no evidence of any bird nests being destroyed but fears such work as she saw last week will endanger birds in the UK’s towns and countryside.

A district council spokesman said: “It was work that Glendale carried out on behalf of the car park service all over the district.

“Every care is taken not to disturb any nesting birds and no nests were found.

“The operatives are well aware of the legal requirements regarding bird nests and if they find them they leave them alone.”