A retired couple from Bolton have been told they must tear down a £4,500 fence surrounding their property after losing their planning appeal this week.
David Hopwood, 67, and his wife Denise, 66, erected the seven-foot barrier around their home on the corner of Plodder Lane and Duchy Avenue in Farnworth, Greater Manchester.
The 25-metre grey composite structure was intended as a low-maintenance alternative to their previous boundary, but a neighbour lodged a complaint about its height.
Bolton Council initially refused retrospective planning permission last year, and following a site inspection last month, officials have now upheld that decision.
The couple have not yet received an enforcement notice, but faces the prospect of having the entire structure dismantled.
Both Mr Hopwood and his wife suffer from arthritis, which made caring for their previous nine-foot hedge increasingly unmanageable.
They had been spending approximately £800 annually on maintenance for the overgrown boundary, a cost that had become unsustainable alongside their physical limitations.
“We both have arthritis, and the hedge was out of control; we weren’t able to look after it,” Mr Hopwood explained.
A pensioner couple have been forced to tear down £4,500 fence after neighbours complained it was ‘intrusive of areas character’
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Their new fence, which features gravel boards and a one-foot decorative trellis on top, was designed to provide both privacy and security with minimal upkeep required.
Before installing the barrier, the Hopwoods had resorted to hanging blankets on their washing line to prevent passers-by from peering into their property.
The couple maintain that the structure has “transformed” daily lives.
Planning inspectors outlined five separate grounds for dismissing the appeal, focusing on the fence’s position, materials, colour and dimensions.
The 25-metre grey composite structure was intended as a low-maintenance alternative to their previous boundary
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Officials described the 2.1-metre structure as a “discordant and strident feature in the street scene” that sits at odds with the neighbourhood’s semi-rural character.
The property overlooks open fields and countryside, and inspectors noted that homes along the road typically feature open frontages with low walls, timber fencing or established hedgerows.
Positioned at the back edge of the pavement, the fence was deemed “very prominent” when viewed from Plodder Lane.
A report stated that the black composite panels “starkly contrast” with the red brick of the house and the adjacent lower wall.
‘I feel like we have been picked on,’ the distraught retiree said
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Despite considering the couple’s personal circumstances, inspectors concluded there was “insufficient evidence” that their privacy and security needs could not be met through less visually intrusive means.
Mr Hopwood expressed frustration at what he perceives as inconsistent enforcement, pointing to the variety of boundary treatments already present in the neighbourhood.
“I feel we have been hard done by, saying it doesn’t fit with the street scene, there isn’t one size that fits all here,” he said.
“There is a jet black one across the road, a number of brick ones. I feel like we have been picked on.”
The pensioner questioned why the colour of his fence had become such a contentious issue, describing it as a personal choice.
With the appeal representing their final formal avenue, Mr Hopwood acknowledged that an enforcement notice would typically follow.
“The whole ordeal has been very stressful,” he said.
“Hopefully they will just order us to change the colour and not replace it with something else.”