NOT even high-tech alarms and solar animal repellers are deterring wild boar from rooting up ground at Brierley, says a resident.

Rose and Terry Baldwin have spent the last two months chasing off wild boar that are rooting up grassland with the help of technical gadgets worth £50.

The couple, who have lived at their home near Brierley garage for 63 years, say they constantly feel restless and are not sleeping as a result.

“We are shattered,” says Rose. “We haven’t slept in two months as we are conscious the boar is creating havoc outside our front door. We go to bed late anyway and what little sleep we do have is interrupted from the alarm going off signalling animal movement.

“We have been chasing twenty or thirty of these pigs off every night and last week, at 6am, our neighbour saw them at work outside our property. My husband spent almost three hours trying to repair the damage – which at the age of 76 isn’t easy – to find it has since been rooted up several times.

“We have invested in three solar animal repellers and shed alarms which acts as a sensor and prompts us that the boar is about. The repellers, which are fitted onto our fence, scare off animals with an ultrasonic sound not detectable by the human ear, and flashes. It doesn’t appear this has affected them and, if anything, they have become used to them.

“It’s not just us who are affected; our neighbours have had their lawns rooted. I’d say there would have been more damage in the past few weeks if the alarms had not been activated by the boar and Terry managed to chase them off each time.

“There have been many more times over the past seven years that these animals have done some damage outside ours and our neighbour’s property. About three years ago, one got into our garden overnight and dug several holes and caused some minor damage.

“We have contacted Forest Enterprise but all we are told is that they are due to cull in September.”