A local council has threatened neighbours with court action as their fences are deemed to be too high.
At least four homeowners in Lliswerry, Newport, have been threatened with enforcement notices from Newport City Council last year.
According to the laws, if a fence is on the highway it requires planning permission if it is more than one metre tall.
One resident, 78-year-old Angela Cureton, had replaced hers with a new one last year but had no idea another neighbour was already embroiled in a long-running argument.
She has now been told she has to replace hers with one which is around half the height, Wales Online reports.
Angela, who recently recovered from two heart attacks, said: “Just before December I received the first letter, and of course when I saw it I became very upset
“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.
“I’m thinking it’s going to cost me a lot of money to take this fence down now.
“Where on earth am I going to get the money from?”
Coming to the aid of his residents, Councillor Allan Morris said the threats “make no sense”.
He said: “The fences don't look bad, if someone had made a fence out of crates you could understand.
“If people had been complaining to us we'd understand it, but we've not had anyone come to us. It doesn't make sense.
“We are talking about a time where the council can't empty people's bins every couple of weeks but they are prepared to spend money taking action in this way against people with fences that are attracting very few complaints.”
A council spokesman said: “Newport City Council is legally obliged to investigate complaints in relation to breaches of planning regulations and, if necessary, take action including the serving of enforcement notices.
“Enforcement notices were served on two properties in the Lliswerry area after complaints about unauthorised fences were received. The council then received a large number of complaints about differing types of means of enclosures for the boundaries of properties in the area.
“Each was investigated but only four were found to be in breach of planning legislation. As a result, enforcement notices were served in each case.
“Formal enforcement action is a last resort when negotiations have failed to resolve the breach of planning control.”
