VOTE: Gap of 23 inches costs North Bersted man huge sum and half a fence

The strip of grass means Mike Garrigan is left with half a fence around his garden on the corner of Barton Road and Whiteways.

He has to take down what remains of the 6ft high wooden panels and concrete posts or risk being taken to court by Arun District Council.

He said: "I am really disappointed with the situation. There are two houses nearby which have got fences exactly the same as the one I wanted.

"There seems to be no consistency. Me and my wife feel we are being denied what everyone else is allowed to have. All we want is some privacy in our back garden with a fence up."

The situation has left Mr Garrigan and his wife, Carole, worse off than they were 18 months ago and some 2,000 out of pocket in planning fees and unwanted fencing.

A 6ft fence had been built around their end-of-terrace house by Arun District Council in 1999. The couple moved into the then council property the previous year after Mr Garrigan, 50, had left the Army.

The council agreed to the fence replacing a hawthorn hedge to avoid partially-sighted Mrs Garrigan, 48, injuring herself on its branches.

The fence was blown down in a winter storm in early 2008. Mr and Mrs Garrigan had by then bought the house and a 330mm strip of grass between the fence and the pavement.

The loss of the fence prompted store home delivery supervisor Mr Garrigan to apply to Arun in July 2008 for planning permission to put up a 6ft fence and change the use of the grass into a garden.

He was refused two months later because the council's planning officers said the fence would be too prominent a feature so close to the pavement.

The decision notice reads: "The loss of the open and spacious character to the locality that would result if the area were to be enclosed and changed in use from amenity land to garden is also detrimental to the established character of the street scene."

Mr Garrigan put up a 6ft fence slightly in front of the line of his old fence after he said a planning officer, who has since left, told him verbally it would be all right to do that rather than formally appeal against the refusal.

But he was told last month by Arun's planning enforcement officers the fence had to come down because it was in the wrong position. The offending distance was given as 0.6m or 23ins. It was also too high.

Planning law means Mr Garrigan can put up only a 3ft 3in high fence, rather than 6ft high, in the original position without the need to spend several hundred pounds more on another planning application.

An Arun spokeswoman said: "A breach of planning control relating to the change of use of verge to garden and putting in a fence above 1m/3ft 3in in height and adjacent to the highway has taken place."

The council had nothing on file to support Mr Garrigan's claim of a verbal approval to installs his new fence closer to the pavement than his original one.

What do you think? Send a letter to [email protected] or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click here to add yourself to our readers' map. A response was awaited from Mr Garrigan about the offending fence before any decision was taken about further action, she added.

What do you think? Send a letter to [email protected] or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click here to add yourself to our readers' map.