North Yorkshire Police said: “The offenders used a dumper truck to break down the entrance gates before damaging construction equipment and partly constructed buildings on the site.”

PC Jill Rawson of the Selby Safer Neighbourhood Team described the attack at the Coupland Road site as “an act of utterly mindless vandalism, causing unnecessary expenditure and delays.”

Scott Curtis from Bovis Homes told The Press:  “They haven’t damaged any partly-constructed buildings, but they did cause some damage to a demonstration area where we had a 1metre by 1metre structure which is made up of three sample walls which are about 1m high and a window to show contractors the standard of work required on site.

“We reported the incident to the police as soon as workers returned to site this morning.

“We will work closely with the police to help them in their investigations and will be conducting our own investigation into the incident as security and safety are of paramount importance to us.

“We would urge anyone with any information on the incident to contact the police.”