A council has threatened to take legal action against a group of neighbours if they do nothing about the height of their fences. Following a lengthy dispute with the neighbourhood council over a tidy but otherwise ordinary fence, homeowners in Lliswerry in Newport started getting enforcement notices from Newport City Council last year.
If a fence will be more than one metre height and be located on a public motorway, planning permission is required. Four irate locals claim that although they are being targeted, the countless other fences in the neighbourhood can remain because they have been there for more than four years. Two fences owned by one lady are identical in height, but the newer fence needs to be taken down.
Days after spending thousands of pounds to have her fence built last summer, Angela Cureton, 78, happily began painting it dark green. She was unaware that Corinne Winslett, who lived nearby, was engaged in a dispute with the council over her fence, which led the council to become aware of further, nearly identical fences that had been erected in Lliswerry.
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Four residents have already received enforcement letters, and some of them have stated that they are determined to take the situation—which they have dubbed "farcical"—to court at a time when the local government is raising council tax rates. A council spokesperson claimed that the organisation must operate in accordance with the law and that legal action will only be considered in the event that remedial action is not taken.
Speaking to Wales Online, Angela, who recently had two attacks, said: “Just before December I received the first letter, and of course when I saw it I became very upset. You can see the fence gives me privacy.
“The letter said by law it shouldn’t have been erected and that I needed permission. I took it personally, I took it as though people had been complaining. All my neighbours around here I know very well and it hurt to think that may have happened. I went and asked every individual about the fence and they said: ‘No, there is no problem with it Ang. It’s absolutely super.’
“Before I had the fence, I had a huge conifer there which grew wide and people walking along had to go onto the road to avoid getting hit by the bushes. I thought: ‘Well this is ridiculous, I need to do something about this.’ Cars coming out of the junction also had to push right out to see past the conifers. Honestly, I thought someone was going to get killed, so I had to do something about it.”
The council has sent Angela a diagram of what she needs to do to avoid court action which includes demolishing the fence and rebuilding it to around half its size. “I’m thinking it’s going to cost me a lot of money to take this fence down now,” she added. “Where on earth am I going to get the money from?”
Corinne says she’s prepared to go to court over her fence which splits the driveways between her and her neighbour. “The only avenue I have is to pay the gentleman who built the fence to take it down, but that would cost me £300, so the only other option is to appeal, which would cost me £280. I’m not in a position to pay that so I’ll have to go to court.
“Mine started because of a complaint. They said they couldn’t see off the end of the drive. But if you drive around the estate you’ll see so many other similar fences. When I got the letter I thought it was a joke. They’re all over Newport, there are hundreds and hundreds of fences like it.”
Other fence disputes in the area mean Lianne Garnett has been embroiled in the almost comical developments. Part of her fence, which was built in 2016 by the previous homeowners, was rotting and so she replaced it in 2019 with a composite fence which stretches a few metres at most.
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