Dismayed neighbours are being threatened with court action by a council if they do not take action over the height of their fences. Homeowners in Lliswerry in Newport began receiving enforcement notices from Newport City Council last year after one had a lengthy battle with the local authority over her tidy but rather unremarkable looking fence.
If a fence is on the highway it requires planning permission if it is planned to be a metre tall or more. Four aggrieved residents point to the numerous other fences in the area and say they are being targeted, but because the other fences have been up for more than four years they can stay. One woman has two fences that are the same height but she needs to demolish the newer one.
Angela Cureton, 78, proudly started painting her fence a nice dark green days after she spent thousands having it built last summer. Little did she know that Corinne Winslett, who lived around the corner, was in a fight with the council over her fence which alerted the council to other almost identical fences having gone up in Lliswerry. For the latest Newport news sign up to our newsletter here.
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Four have now received enforcement notices and some of them have said they are committed to going to court over the “farcical” situation at a time where the local authority is hiking council tax charges. A council spokesman said the body has a legal obligation to take action, and that court action is only taken if remedial action is not undertaken.
“Just before December I received the first letter, and of course when I saw it I became very upset,” Angela, who recently had two heart attacks, told WalesOnline, showing us her half-painted fence from her bedroom window. “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 avenues 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.
She’s also received a notice in the last couple of months informing her she needs to remove the fence. She says it’ll leave her with no privacy in her garden.
“That was up more than four years ago now, so everything up to here is okay,” Lianne explained, pointing towards the older fence to her left. “From here (to the right) all we’ve done is take the rotting fence down and replace it. There is no difference in height, but we’ve been told it needs to come down. It’s ridiculous.”
The issue is the talk of the area and much of a local council meeting was attributed to it last week. Councillor Allan Morris 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. It's a case of what the council sees as its priorities. I would rather see people prosecuted for anti-social behaviour and flytipping in Lliswerry than see people prosecuted for the height of their fences." Cllr Morris was making reference to cost-cutting measures implemented by the council in its new budget which you can read here.
A council spokesperson 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. There is an independent appeal process for people who wish to challenge the notice or an application that has been refused. Court action is only taken if remedial action is not undertaken by the property owner and the council would be able to recover its costs.”
One man, who didn’t want to be named, said costs have racked up appealing the notice he’s received. In total the fence and appeals have cost him £3,720.
“I had the fence built in June 2022 and six weeks later I got the letter,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be an issue because many had similar fences. I foster a little girl and she is particularly vulnerable. She likes playing in the garden and I wanted her to feel comfortable doing so. Previously we had seven-foot hedges there, but we took them down and built the fence. I’ve spent a lot of money appealing and that’s been rejected. I’m just baffled by it all.”
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