PARISH councillors branded “murderers” over their mole extermination plan have said critics are making a mountain out of a molehill.

Merton Parish Council near Bicester said the rampaging rodents were digging up the village playing fields, a children’s play area, allotments and woodland walks.

But when parish councillor Ron Leaver announced plans to lay mole traps around the village, residents hit out saying the council was overreacting.

Freelance writer Jenny Green said: “To murder innocent creatures because they make a mess of a playing field is a gross ethical crime.”

Now Mr Leaver and his council have hit back, saying they take no pleasure from killing, but the village’s human residents must come first.

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Mr Leaver said: “I do have sympathy. I don’t like killing anything but if it is a case of the moles being a nuisance they have to go.

“There are something like a hundred hills over the playing field.”

He said a mild winter had been kind to the moles, meaning their bothersome burrowing was worse this year than ever.

The council also said it only took steps to deal with the moles in response to requests from parishioners.

In a statement it said the complaints it had received about the plans “highlight the plight of the moles”, which it called “a matter of concern to anyone with awareness of and respect for the natural world”.

It said opposition to killing animals was “wholly understandable”.

But the council went on: “What none of the correspondents mentions however is the impact of the moles on the human population.

“Especially in view of the high levels of traffic that currently pass through our village, the playing field represents one of the few safe areas where local people can walk and engage in physical activity.

“Many of our local residents are elderly, some being taken out in wheelchairs, with the result that heavily-undermined ground poses considerable inconvenience and risk for such people and their helpers.

“In addition, the playing field is used for a variety of sports and recreational activities, including by a local football club.”

Even if the molehills themselves are removed, the council said, the ground beneath would still be undermined, creating a hazard.

Councillor Fred Foxon said: “This is an extraordinary fuss to be making out of the actions of one small village in Oxfordshire.

“It is a mountain out of a molehill.”