A WAR has broken out over the creation of an area of no man’s land for pot plants in Sleaford.

Neighbouring couples are in dispute after one put up a fence barely a yard in front of the other’s new railings.

And East Hampshire District Council is embroiled in the row after approving the fence plan.

Trouble started when Tracy and Steven Rose extended their 400-year-old listed Well Cottage home with a new kitchen.

Mr Rose said: “Before then there was an outwardly upwards sloping small garden area, where the extension has been built, and the boundary was marked by a beech hedge matching the one on the other side of the entrance.

“In the original plan the hedge was meant to stay, but during the course of the building works the structural engineer advised the hedge should be removed as it would compromise the integrity of the retaining wall.

“The hedge was duly removed and the extension was signed off by the council’s building officer without railings or picket fence.”

Well Cottage is partly below ground level and a drop hazard existed that Mr and Mrs Rose dealt with by placing railings on top of the wall in February.

Nicky Turner and Charlie Mills, of neighbouring Bridge Cottage, then gained permission from East Hampshire for two wooden picket fences, which went up at the end of May.

One is to the side of the Roses’ lounge, to protect people from another drop hazard, and the other in front of their kitchen.

When asked what the fence in front of the Roses’ kitchen was for, Mr Mills said: “It defines the boundary between my land and his wife’s land. I suggested a hedge but he said no.

“He could have acted reasonably but he chose this course of action.

“I’d like to know where he thinks he’s going with this because I’m not moving that fence.”

And after exhausting the council’s complaints procedure Mr and Mrs Rose plan to ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for help.

They felt the council’s “ludicrous” ruling had “completely destroyed a harmonious visual relationship”.

In his final decision letter to the Roses, East Hampshire’s director of regeneration and place Simon Jenkins said: “I am sorry you may feel the decision is not what you wished for, but I am satisfied with the way in which the application was determined.”