Distraught residents voiced their anger about Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) participants “ruining the countryside” at a Parish Council meeting in Chartridge on Wednesday evening.

Land owners claim they’ve experienced issues with young people trespassing, destroying crops and leaving litter on the land – and now they are threatening to go to the Duke of Edinburgh himself about the problems.

Chartridge Parish Council are calling for DoE participants to wear some kind of branding so they can be identified and punished if they break the Countryside Code.

Peter Brown from Chartridge Parish Council said: “We have had enough with this. It is ruining the countryside and no one is doing anything about it. It feels like a war at times.

“We are distraught with the way this is being handled - It is ludicrous.

“We think it is a good scheme, we don’t want it to stop altogether but we need a way to identify the people that are causing the problems and then they should be banned.”

Ellie White (pictured) lives on Chartridge End Farm and her land backs on to Braid Wood camp which is commonly used by DoE participants.

Ms White recently had to pay £300 to repair her combine harvester after a large piece of wood was thrown onto her land from the camp.

Ms White said: “They cut across my land rather than using the foot path and they leave all the rubbish.

“They walk across the crops in full height. I know what they are doing is a good thing but they have got to respect the countryside.”

One resident estimate he loses at least two acres of crops a year, with a trade value of between £300-500.

Christian Scott, South East DofE Director, said: “We are more than willing to work with the Parish Council and residents of Chartridge to get to the root of the problem and ensure that if DofE groups are causing these problems they are identified and measures taken.

“We already have strict frameworks in place to educate and train those on DofE activity to respect both the environment and property, and have suggested a number of other actions to the Parish Council we could explore together.

“We have, and hope to continue, an open dialogue with the Parish Council to discuss these options and invite anyone who has an incident to report that involves young people on DofE activity to email southeast@dofe.org with the name of the organisation running the expedition, date, time and nature of complaint.”

Liz van Hullen from Chartridge Parish Council said: “We are keen to see the continued enjoyment of these wonderful surroundings by young people and hope we can work with DoE to help protect the beauty of the Chilterns.”