Wall just two bricks high at centre of planning row

A two-brick high “dwarf” wall is at the centre of a planning row between housing developers and a local businessman.

Lioncourt Homes, which is building 70 homes in Hempsted, Gloucester, said the “dwarf wall” must be demolished to create an emergency access route in line with its planning permission.

But its plans have been thwarted by Roger White, who claims he inherited the land on which the wall sits in 1997.

The 58-year-old alleges he is being “bullied” by the company, which did not offer to buy the land before work began.

Mr White claims he received a cease-and-desist letter, in which the company said he had “no entitlement to a ransom” over the wall.

The IT worker said: “My father always said to me ‘keep an eye on it’ and occasionally I would check on it and see that nothing had changed for years.

“About a month ago I noticed there was a development going on and there was a concrete fence and it was all opened up.

“I went online and I found the actual planning permission itself which stated that because of potential flooding in the lane entrance, planning authorities required that there would be an emergency access put in for emergency vehicles.

“That emergency access was going to be across my land and obviously across my dwarf wall.”

He added: “I contacted Lioncourt Homes and said, ‘You don’t realise I own this,’ and they came back and confirmed in writing that it was my dwarf wall.

‘‘But they are saying that either the dwarf wall is adopted highway or it is their dwarf wall, which [it] clearly isn’t.”

Lincourt claims it has documents from 1964 that show it owns the wall, according to the BBC.

But Mr White says he has records from 1971 that he says prove the wall belongs to him. He says the plot of land was valued at £10,000 in 2017.

Responding to the cease and desist letter, Mr White’s solicitors said it is for Lioncourt Homes to prove the wall is within its property and if it forms part of the public road.

‘Peculiar situation’

Mr White said: “The dwarf wall is in my name and correctly registered in the land registry – it is the most peculiar situation.

‘‘I don’t understand how we can get to the point of 70 houses being built and nobody has actually looked into this before.

Mr White claims the developers just want to “bulldoze” the wall and “get on with the work”.

“It certainly starts to feel like it is the big developer bullying a small businessman because they just seem to be adamant,” he claimed.

Mr White’s father Ernie was an estate agent who purchased a number of “ransom strips” as potential investments.

A spokesman for Lioncourt Homes said: “Works required to implement our planning permission is in land wholly owned by Lioncourt Homes or is in adopted highway land, no third-party land is required.”

A spokesman for Gloucestershire county council said: “We consider that the legal boundary of Lioncourt’s land directly adjoins the public road of Honeythorn Close. Legal boundaries have no physical width (regardless of the physical boundary’s appearance) and the highway status takes precedence over whoever owns the ground beneath it.

“Therefore, the council considers that the works to create the emergency vehicle access as required by planning can be lawfully implemented.”