A HOUSEHOLDER has been told she cannot keep a “six foot” timber fence around her garden. 

Jade Evans asked Torfaen Borough Council for retrospective planning permission to keep the wooden fence to the side of her home at Coed Camlas in New Inn, Pontypool. 

It was put up over four days in July and replaced low “picket style fencing” but the council’s planning department found the new fence rather than being “six foot”, as described, is slightly taller at two metres in height and runs along the garden for 12m. 

Planning officer Caroline Pulley described it as “an inappropriate and visually poor development which harms the character and appearance of the area” and also said it was unacceptable on safety grounds as it restricted the visibility of drivers using the drive attached to the house. 

Complaints from neighbours it breached a legal covenant restricting fencing on the new estate were described as outside the remit of the planning process.