We’re fuming over council’s monstrous 1.8m fence outside our homes – we feel like we’re in prison & we’re fighting back
RESIDENTS of a quiet neighbourhood are fuming over council’s monstrous fence as it will make them feel like they’re “in prison”.
Locals in Pontypool, Wales, claim that the local council is planning to put up the structure without consultation and it will ruin their lives.
Torfaen Council wants to erect a six-foot high green v-mesh which is part of a 300-foot long installation at Osborne Road.
However, homeowners are begging the council to scrap the plans as it towers over their houses.
One resident, Becky, 55, whose back garden will be bordered by the fence, compared life behind the fence to prison.
She said: “I’ve seen the plans and I can safely declare it an absolute eyesore.
“It’s going to run along the bottom of my garden less than 20 metres from our kitchen window.
“Who would want to look out of the window and see that?”
The health and social care worker said she is “surprised they’re not putting barbed wire on it too”.
“I’ve seen photos of the fence they want to put up. It’s hideous.
“It’s curved at the top – just like you see at jails.”
It will also have three access gates which are likely to be locked.
She claimed the council did not ask locals about the plans and haven’t “done anything to reassure them”.
Becky slammed: “It’s simply not good enough.”
Torfaen Council’s planning department said the fence is required for health and safety reasons and to stop fly tipping.
But residents disagree and claim there is “little crime” and fly-tipping has never been a problem in the area.
“I’ve never seen rubbish there,” Becky said.
No date for the installation has yet been given.
Fellow residents have also blasted that it will ruin their pleasant community.
One said: “That fence is already disheartening to the community.
“This, together with the proposed fence, may encourage anti-social behaviour, devalue properties and inhibit the occupants of Osborne Road from freedom of movement.
“In effect, creating a confining, uninhabitable environment.”
It comes as locals of Hessle, in Hull, Yorkshire, say their lives were ruined by their neighbour’s huge fence as it makes them feel “imprisoned”.
Residents claimed the local council put up the structure without any consultation and have slammed it as too big.
Elsewhere, a woman revealed the extreme measure her neighbour went to after she put up a privacy fence.
Alayna spotted the neighbour peeking into her garden after weeks of confrontations – and decided to put up a new screen.
Torfaen Council has been approached for comment.