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But doing so makes them liable to a €150,000 fine and two years’ jail for damaging protected species in the pond.

Michel and Annie Pecheras at Grignols, St Astier, Dordogne, have battled the case for six years and will now appeal to the Bordeaux court for a solution – while green campaigners want to take it to the European Court.

The pond has been on the property for more than 100 years and a petition to save it has drawn 138,000 names.