SWAMPED: Daniel has been stopped building pebble dams in a two inch deep stream

It has warned ­Daniel Johnson’s ­father Rob that the little piles of pebbles could block the brook and cause a “major ­disaster”.

But Mr Johnson, 33, said the dams his son beavers away at creating are five inches high and the water in the stream is just a couple of inches deep.

“I am gobsmacked by this, it’s just ridiculous,” he said yesterday. “This is about a child being supervised by a parent and playing in a stream two inches deep.

“We have made pebble dams a few times. It’s the stuff you do with your kids.

“It is a normal, everyday activity, something people do all over the country.

“The parish council has told me to stop doing it – but even the rain would wash the pebbles away.

“Daniel doesn’t make proper dams. It’s just a few pebbles in a row that the water flows around. We have lots of people stopping us and saying they used to do it with their grandchildren.”