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Peter Sperin maintains Birmingham and Worcester Canal and River Trust initially gave him permission to landscape the unkempt land, and says neighbours had done the same. A grieving widower who spent £10,000 creating a wildlife sanctuary for his dying wife near his home in Birmingham has been forced to rip it up.

With tears in his eyes, grieving widower Peter Sperin ripped up the wildlife sanctuary he had created for his partner Deborah during the final days of her fight for life.

The decking, pots, badger and hedgehog homes were painstaking removed from “Deb’s Paradise”, an oasis of calm at the bottom of the couple’s Peplins Way home in Kings Norton.

She spent her last three days gazing at the recently completed haven, created on a parcel of Birmingham and Worcester Canal and River Trust that nestles at the bottom of her home.

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Before that, her “conversations” – made through eye contact on a computer – were dominated by the project. This week’s reluctant destruction of her sanctuary was the culmination of a protracted legal battle between property developer Peter and the river trust.

The 55-year-old maintains the trust initially gave him permission to landscape the unkempt land, and says neighbours had done the same. They agreed a peppercorn rent of £1 – but Peter says the trust’s help and co-operation rapidly dried up. He returned home from visiting his terminally ill wife at Edgbaston’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital to discover warning notices had been posted.

He had, after paying hundreds of pounds in solicitor’s fees, gained an extension to the deadline. It was not a victory he celebrated. “It was heartbreaking, I haven’t even had time to grieve,” he said.

“This will put me in the grave, too.”

That will be the same grave, at Kings Norton Cemetery, as his wife. Deborah was buried there on January 2.

She had battled Multiple Systems Atrophy for seven years, before passing away at the age of 54.

As the terrible disease tightened its grip, four carers tended to her needs. In health, Deborah was an NHS occupational therapist. Childhood sweethearts, she and Peter have two grown-up children and four grandchildren.

“Seeing what the disease did was terrible, really traumatic,” says Peter.

“It ripped both of us to shreds.

“When she came home and saw what we’d done (Paul paid for a professional landscaper and also recruited a labourer) she cried with happiness.

“She said she’d die with that memory. She just closed her one eye, took a deep breath – and that was it.

“I couldn’t get my head round it, because I always thought she’d make a full recovery. I kept on telling her that. I suppose, I just couldn’t accept it. “I fell to bits. Her thought process was crystal-clear: there was nothing wrong with her mind, just her body.”

Peter had grand plans for Deb’s Paradise. Birmingham’s St Mary’s Hospice had, he says, accepted his offer to use the tranquil spot as a respite area for patients. He intended to create a permanent memorial to Deborah – but those dreams were destroyed by his own hand on Tuesday.

“I was going to serve coffee, with every penny going to St Mary’s. I’ve rung the hospice and told them it’s the worst blow imaginable,” he explains.

Yet Peter claims the river trust approved his proposal as long as three years ago. Back then, it was an overgrown, litter-strewn wilderness.

“They said ‘You’re doing us a favour’,” Peter recalls. “Five houses have done the same thing, including next door.

“It cost me £1,500 to have 11 trees removed and we filled three skips with the rubbish. “It was a rat-infested pit, with three foot deep of rubbish – I made it a paradise. I did the trust a massive favour, and I did it out of my own pocket.”

Peter claimed the trust took exception to the removal of those trees and a spiked fence, although he insists a representative had earlier given verbal permission for their removal.

“My big mistake was not getting it in writing,” he sighs,

He says the trust ordered a temporary halt to the work following concerns about a gas pipe on the land. A site visit, involving trust members and representatives of Cadent Gas, alleviated those concerns, Peter maintains, and work resumed. But Peter returned from a hospital trip to discover the bombshell notices ordering an end to his labour of love.

“That was out-of-the-blue,” he says. “I was shocked, devastated. I had told them what was happening to Deb. “When she was home, I told her bits about what was going on – she could still hear. I was with her 24/7. “She took it badly – the garden was her last bit of hope. She was an angel, just a beautiful, giving person.

“She was so positive. She used to say ‘put it out to the universe’. She just couldn’t deal with negativity. “I would have to invent a word to describe how cruel the trust has been to me. “My son’s a doctor. He said ‘Why can’t they just say let’s see what we can work out?’ “Hand on my heart, I have not been able to grieve properly. I go to Deb’s grave and feel empty.”

A spokesman for the Birmingham and Worcester Canal and River Trust says: “We are deeply sorry to hear about the death of Mr Sperrin’s’ wife Deborah and we would like to send our condolences to Peter and his family at this sad time.

“The Trust has spoken to Mr Sperrin on several occasions and we have explained to him that he was not permitted, either by the Trust or by the gas company Cadent, to carry out any work on the land which backs onto his tenanted property and is held on Trust for the Nation by the charity, Canal & River Trust.

“Despite repeated requests to stop the works and several site visits from the Trust and Cadent, Mr Sperrin has ignored our requests and has cut down trees, installed decking and put a fence up as part of his plans to create a memorial garden.

“Whilst we do sympathise with Mr Sperrin and acknowledge this is a difficult time for him, we do not allow unauthorised development on Trust land.

“The parcel of land in question is an operational canal bank which is not suitable for use as a visiting spot for patients of the local hospice. The canal bank is steep, access is poor and it’s also next to a main gas line. For safety reasons we have asked Mr Sperrin to remove the garden and not carry out any future works on the site.”