A home owner in Norfolk has been charged with causing criminal damage, following a disagreement over an outside wall built adjacent to the front of his single width driveway.
Keith Stopford complained about the 1.5 metre high wall that his neighbours, Flaviano and Rosalyn Taaca, had built to box in the front of their property on the unadopted road, Pump House Close, in Costessey near Norwich. He argued that he had not agreed to the wall being built, and that it had been badly constructed without planning permission and encroached his boundary.
He claimed that the wall was a danger to his family, dog and the wider community and had been built while he was on holiday in July 2022 “all the way next to my drive and partly over my land”.
He said: “The planning application says it’s for a proposal to build a new fence, when in fact it’s a wall that has already been built without any planning permission. It’s not just the planning proposal description that is misleading, the plans are all incorrect and the wall is over 1.5 metres high, not the 1.2 metres shown on the plans.
“Apart from this huge wall being dangerous, it really is completely out of character. I can’t reverse or drive out of my drive safely as there is no visibility and this could be very dangerous for small children, pets and other pedestrians. In spite of pointing this out to the applicant, they have done nothing about it.”
Other neighbours complained about the wall including builder, Lee Hook, whose comment on the planning application read: “I saw them building the wall, and noticed that the footings of the wall were not within the current regulations. I noticed that the wall does not follow their boundary either, it is encroaching onto a neighbour’s driveway. The wall also looks out of character and the workmanship is poor. I feel sorry for [Mr Stopford], because it is blocking the view of the road, making it dangerous when exiting their drive. We have many dog walkers and children playing around this area.”
However, despite Mr Stopford’s concerns and supporting comments from other neighbours, retrospective planning permission was granted in February 2023 for “roofed decking” with a height of 3.2 metres and a “brick fence” with a post height of 1.4 metres, by South Norfolk District Council.
In his response to the application, Mr Stopford also mentioning the “noisy Karaoke parties” that disturbed neighbours and were held in a 4 metre high garden building that overshadowed his garden.
In its response to the application, Highways commented that it did not like the wall as it was erected due to its height adjacent to the narrow footway. However, fence boards in front of other properties on the road were of a similar height or higher, and had been in place for over ten years. On that basis, it did not object to the application.
The high fence boards already on the road bound the rear gardens of corner properties, while the front gardens are largely open or bounded by hedges or picket style, low wooden fences.
In exacerbation, Mr Stopford’s solution was to wait until his neighbours were on holiday themselves before using a hammer to attempt to destroy the wall.
After the police were informed, Mr Stopford was charged with causing criminal damage, which he denies. His solicitor argued that he had a “lawful excuse”, and that its poor construction had led him to tear down the wall.
He was given unconditional bail pending trial in October 2024. He declined to comment, saying that he had: “had some nasty comments left about me from local news and I don’t want to make anything worse”.