A SCOTS mum who built a privacy fence around her garden to protect her child and dogs has been left furious after she was ordered to take it down.
Natalie Anderson was left fearing for her family after people were dumping used syringes, glass bottles and condoms in the garden at the front of her house.
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To stop them from landing near her front door in Bilston, Midlothian, she replaced the wire fencing outside her house with a stronger, wooden privacy fence.
After it was built, she submitted a retrospective planning application to the council.
But she was told it would need to be halved in size after it was deemed too high, according to STV News.
Furious, Natalie lodged an appeal with Scottish Ministers but said that her attempt was lost.
Her second attempt was then rejected because it should have been sent to the local council’s review body.
By that time, it was too late to appeal to the council as it was past the deadline date.
Natalie was told she had taken too long to appeal because it wasn’t filed with the Midlothian Council’s review body within three months.
She said: “It is ridiculous, the fence was raised to stop things being thrown in my garden and it looks much better than the old fencing or putting a hedge in, which would be allowed.
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“It doesn’t block any views on the road and is keeping my family safe. I even offered to put plants in front of it, but that was rejected.”
The fence is just under a meter in height along the front of her home before it rises to 1.8m at the side.
Natalie added that no one had made any objections to the fence with the senior road manager offering no objections as well.
They said the fence “does not raise any major road safety issues” despite it “resulting in a general reduction in visibility in the area”.
The road manager concluded that even with the added height “driver visibility at the junction will still be adequate”.
However, council chiefs argued that “it would appear less stark and be more in keeping with the surrounding area and have less of an impact on road safety.”
Natalie has now been ordered to reduce the height to 1.2m.
The details of the section of the fence that had to be reduced as well as information on how to appeal was printed on the decision letter’s final page in the small print notes.
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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk
