A homeowner who was told by his local authority to demolish a wall outside his home because it was 80cm too tall has written to them about the height of council-owned walls and fences in his community, accusing the authority of hypocrisy. Mark Roberts, a garden manufacturer and professional Father Christmas who lives in Gelligaer in Caerphilly borough, received notice from Caerphilly County Borough Council in 2021 that someone had complained about the height of his stone wall he’d then recently built outside the front of his property at Aneurin Bevan Avenue.
Mark’s wall was originally 6ft in height when he built it in 2020. He said he created it in place of an 8ft-tall conifer which had become an unruly nuisance while he also wanted more privacy. But if a permanent structure such as a wall or a fence is more than a metre in height it requires planning permission to be constructed and that must be delivered through a formal planning process. Mark said he was unaware he needed that permission when he built the wall and had thought he could do what he liked on his own private property.
Following a lengthy planning battle which went to government department Planning and Environmental Decisions Wales (PEDW) and lasted more than two years Mark settled on reducing the height of his wall by 80cm rather than demolishing the whole thing. Pictures taken by WalesOnline in September showed the wall looking untidy compared to before. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter.
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Weeks after Mark had taken his wall apart he claimed he noticed a contractor for the local authority had built a wall “more than a metre in height” on council-owned land in the area. Mark said he then realised that the council was in the process of rebuilding many walls and fences in the area and he claims many are more than a metre in height.
Posing beside some of the high walls for photographs Mark said learning of council-owned walls in the area that are too high angered him so much that he wrote to the council’s planning department. He claims that in response the council has submitted retrospective planning applications for all of the walls, fences, and similar structures they own which have been pointed out by him.
The council’s own application for the abundance of walls, which you can see here, was submitted on Monday, October 23. The application relates to walls which have been built at Aneurin Bevan Avenue, Dan-y-Graig Road, Gaer Place, Greenhill Place, Haman Place, Heol Cattwg, Heol Edward Lewis, Heol Y Waun, and St Cattwgs Avenue.
Mark, who previously told WalesOnline what he’d been forced to do had made his wall “look terrible”, said: “This needs to be brought to the public’s attention. Caerphilly council has not gained planning permission before building any of these walls which are more than a metre in height.
“As I have reported a breach of planning they have now applied for planning permission which would be retrospective as most of the walls are completed. It looks like there is one rule for the council and another for me. If these walls get approved it’s unbelievable and should be taken to court.”
Mark, who originally spent £5,000 on the wall, had said about his own wall: “It was nice and private before all of this. There are so many walls around here over a metre. I feel I’ve been targeted with it all really and I’ve been unfairly treated. I tried to make the house look nice and I wasn’t hurting anyone. I’m not even allowed to put a fence on the wall. I can’t put a fence on it but I can grow a tall hedge. It’s ridiculous.”
A spokesman for Caerphilly council said: “The local planning authority is currently investigating a planning enforcement complaint relating to the erection of boundary walls at Gelligaer and in parallel is also in the process of considering an application for retention and completion of walls in the same area.”
