Council contractors drove a digger over an allotment, ruining a plot holder's crop of prized vegetables.

Workers were ordered to install a new fence on an allotment off John Garne Way in Marston, but wreaked havoc instead when they crushed Peter Boreham's Brussel sprouts, carrots, oak leaf lettuce and beans while taking a short cut.

The caterpillar-tracked digger driver also managed to damage a pipe, so the plot now has no running water.

Last night, Mr Boreham, 60, of nearby William Street, called the episode "unnecessary and incompetent" while Oxford City Council offered its "sincere apologies" and urged Mr Boreham to submit a claim for compensation.

However, a city council spokesman refused to name the contractors carrying out the work on behalf of the Town Hall.

Mr Boreham told the Oxford Mail: "It really should not have happened."

And in a letter to the council he said: "I had the misfortune to rent the allotment next to the fence between two gates on to John Garne Way.

"Your employees, being too idle to open both gates and drive out of the allotments and in the other side, have taken a short cut through my allotment driving over my purple sprouting, a row of oak leaf lettuce, a row of carrots and a row of beans.

"I will be expecting suitable compensation for the hours of toil my wife and I put in to cultivate these crops which has been wasted to save your workmen a few minutes and the loss of fresh, home-grown crops for our table."

City council parks manager John Wade said: "We have offered our sincere apologies to Mr Boreham for the disturbance caused and the loss of his vegetables.

"We have advised Mr Boreham to submit a claim to cover his losses.

"We had advised the allotment association secretary the work would be carried out and advised plot holders that they needed a two-metre wide working area.

"It is with regret this damage has been caused and we have offered our sincere apologies."

Earlier this year, allotment holders across Oxford defiantly said they would dig for victory in a battle to save their plots from the threat of new houses after city planners identified three sites on which almost 400 homes could be built.

Land at Priory Road in Minchery Farm, near Greater Leys, Upper Wolvercote and Court Place Farm in Old Marston was identified.

If chosen, the city council-owned sites could be used for housing after 2016, but allotment holders issued a hands-off warning.