A PENSIONER has slammed his neighbour’s 6ft privacy fence which borders a garden they don’t even own.
Fred Tucker, 84, complained to his local council after the family, which lives opposite him, built a fence around a grassy area next to his house in Cwmparc, South Wales.
The family have never owned the land, which is now inside the boundary fence, but say they have leased the land from the council since January 2017.
They had no formal planning permission for a garden area or to erect the fence when they did so last year.
Up until then the family used the area to park vehicles while Fred said he would sometimes use the land to turn his caravan around.
But last year the family built the fence around the modest section of land in order to extend their garden.
Have you been involved in a neighbour row over a fence? Contact: Jonathan.Rose@thesun.co.uk
Fred said he approached them after they began building the fence and asked if they’d received planning permission.
It transpired no formal planning permission had been given – although the family maintain they had previously received verbal agreement to use the area for gardening purposes.
They claim they’d been incorrectly informed by someone working for the council that they didn’t need planning permission for the fence.
Fred then said he’d complain to the council in order to have the fence taken down or reduced to a metre in height.
The family was told they would have to apply retrospectively and has now won the case to keep the fence as it is.
They have also won approval for change of use to use the area as a second garden.
Fred said the planning result has left him baffled.
He had sent the council a document signed by 54 neighbours who objected to the plans but Fred said his efforts “made no difference”.
Fred said: “The land is not their land. The land belongs to the council. You can’t see cars coming down the hill and around the corner.
“It also completely blocks my view from my drive and my window.
“I used to watch for the bus at the top of the street and I’d wave at the driver and he’d wait for me. I can’t do that anymore.
“I’ve had a nice view of the hills for 40 years. Now I look at that fence.”
The family who erected the fence said: “We asked the council as to whether we could enclose the land without the need for planning permission.
“We were told in writing that consent wasn’t needed and so we proceeded to erect good quality fencing to enclose the land to become a play area for our young daughter.
“Mr Tucker then kicked up a fuss with the council that the land didn’t have planning consent.
IT'S very important to know your rights if you are embroiled in a fence row with a neighbour.
How do I know which side I own?
A boundary feature can be a fence, wall, hedge, ditch, piece of wire, or sometimes even just the edge of a driveway.
The only way to know for certain who owns what side and to avoid any neighbour disputes, is to refer to the title plan or Land Registry.
In this, the T mark is used to indicate who the boundary belongs to and therefore who is responsible for its upkeep, say pros at Jacksons Fencing.
Larger developments tend to have some indication provided by the builder, but there are no hard and fast rules
People often think they are responsible for the left (or right) hand boundary wherever they live, but there isn’t any legal basis for this.
You can check with HM Land Registry to see which boundary feature you are responsible for.
Often households can’t get hold of the paperwork but experts say they shouldn’t panic.
Homeowners can guess who owns the fence by checking where the rails are.
Pros say: “The fence is typically facing away from their property so that their neighbour gets the ‘good’ side.
“This is the most secure way of facing fencing so there are no rails for anyone to use to climb into your garden.
“This is then repeated with the neighbour on the other side to ensure that each home has both a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fence side.”
Walls and fences are often built on the land of the boundary’s owner with the edge of the wall marking the limit.
While professionals agree a glimpse at the fence can give you a hint, it’s not foolproof – so you can’t be certain.
Fines and punishment
It is recommended to always check legal documents before making changes to avoid hefty fines.
There is no law that the neighbour has to get the good side of the fence, so it’s completely up to whoever owns the fence.
Fencing pros have suggested: “It may be worth selecting a double-sided panel with no ‘bad’ side as both sides look the same and rails are concealed within the fence panel.”
If one boundary backs onto a road or footpath you can install the panels with the rails on the inside
But if it’s installed on the outside, it can provide an “easy ladder for burglars to enter your garden”.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Property Litigation Association have created a mediation service to help neighbours resolve disputes over their property boundaries without resorting to court action.
RICS also provides a list of surveyors who could assist in boundary disputes.
If a dispute continues, it is ultimately a court that makes decisions, but they do not like such disputes being put before them.
Changing a boundary
If you want to change an existing boundary, such as replacing an old fence with a new one, we always recommend discussing with your neighbour first and making sure it is all agreed.
The registered titles can help you to reach an agreement, but only if this information has been added.
In terms of decorations on a fence legal advisers recommended asking around over who actually first installed it.
But they also urged caution before getting to work on amending the fence without getting more certainty yourself – since there is a danger of actually being prosecuted for criminal damage.
How high can a garden fence be?
The height of the fence is measured from your ground level, this can have an impact when, due to slopes in the ground, your garden may be at a higher level than your neighbours‘.
A garden fence can be as high as 100m but you need to get planning permission if it’s over than 2m.
However, there are some complications to this.
If you are thinking about front garden fences, restrictions state that fences alongside a driveway can be a maximum of 1m or 3ft.
You would need to get planning permission for putting a trellis on a fence of 2m.
But, if any plant that you grow on that trellis exceeds 2m, you do not need to obtain a permit for the growing plant.
“We then had a meeting with planning enforcement and he informed us very apologetically we did actually need planning consent which we attended to immediately.
“The process took a long time and that was when Mr Tucker put up signs to attempt to intimidate us.”
A spokesperson for Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council said: “The council can confirm it is the owner of the land in question and has leased it for use as a private garden curtilage.
“In January 2024 the planning and development committee considered an application to change the use of land to a garden curtilage, which included installing a 1.8m fence.
“Officers recommended the application for approval as the proposal was typical of such residential areas, was considered acceptable in visual terms, and was deemed to have no adverse impact upon pedestrian and highway safety.
“A number of objections were made against the application including by a local resident who spoke in the planning meeting.
“Having considered all relevant material planning considerations, members of the planning and development committee resolved to approve the application.”
POP princess Olivia Rodrigo is set to perform at Glastonbury again.
The US singer, 21, has been invited to the Worthy Farm festival for a second time next summer after her debut two years ago.
Olivia, whose albums have both hit No1 in the UK and US, has rescheduled Manchester tour dates for the Monday after the Somerset festival, freeing up her schedule for a potential Pyramid Stage show.
A source said: “Organisers are keen to get more high-profile female performers topping the bill after being criticised in the past for it being a male-heavy event.”
On Friday Olivia blew kisses to fans at the premiere of her Netflix concert movie Guts in Los Angeles.
She also features on the cover of the new edition of Billboard magazine.
When Olivia, whose hits include Good 4 U and Vampire, was last at Glastonbury she had Brit singer Lily Allen as a surprise guest.
Organiser Emily Eavis previously admitted she is striving for a gender balance in the line-up.
She said: “Unless you consciously change and address it, then it will stay the same.”
Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles may also play at Glastonbury next year, before it takes a break in 2026.
WOMEN will be key if Donald Trump returns to the White House due to the razor-thin margins in the US Presidential race, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
Working-class white women are critical voters who may swing the polls in favour of the ex-President, despite his rival Kamala Harris being poised to make history by becoming America’s first female leader.
When Trump stunned the world by defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016, 47 per cent of white women voted for him, while 45 per cent backed the former US Secretary of State.
According to exit polls, Trump had just 42 per cent of the female vote when he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
But now some believe history could repeat itself, with Trump wooing more white, female voters for a second time in the Presidential race.
These women are the major demographic of key swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which make up Kamala’s most likely route to election victory.
Experts say these key voters are torn between disdain for Trump and dissatisfaction with President Biden’s Presidency, particularly over immigration and the cost of living.
At a recent Trump rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania — Biden’s hometown — artist Dorina Amendola waved a white flag emblazoned with: “Trump 2024 — No More Bulls**t”
Dorina, in her 30s, said: “I’m a first-generation college student.
“My dad is an Italian immigrant and my mum is a third-generation Slavic coal miner’s granddaughter.
“The Democratic Party used to be for the working class — that’s what the myth was anyway.”
Dorina, who graduated in chemistry from Ivy League Princeton University, added: “We had a family restaurant — we saw the value of President Trump in office through our customers and through our sales versus when President Biden got in.
“We’ve seen how the gasoline prices skyrocketed and that ruined the supply chain.
“People who own small businesses are behind Trump.”
Also at the rally, first-time voter Fiona Dolan, 19, revealed she is backing Trump citing: “Immigration, the military and money.”
The student said she is worried about people arriving illegally over the Southern US border “taking our jobs and bringing drugs over”.
Her friend Madeleine Semerr, also 19 and wearing a red Make America Great Again cap, added: “The border crossings are absolutely ridiculous.
“When Trump was President everything was much more controlled.”
Grandmother Lori Jean, 77, also said she has no time for Harris.
Leaning against a monster Jeep, she insisted: “She’s not up to par.
“She just doesn’t have the experience.
“We are very afraid if she gets in.
“She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
Since 2022, abortion has become a major election issue after the US supreme court overturned the nationwide right to an abortion.
States were given the power to come up with their own regulations.
Trump has taken credit for the ban, saying: “I did a great service.”
Recently he’s been more nuanced, saying some states that are restricting abortion rights are being “too tough” and called for their laws to be rolled back.
Democrats have argued that the Trump-appointed judges on the Supreme Court voting to overturn national abortion rights also raised the possibility of a challenge to IVF.
Harris wants to restore national abortion rights, calling the current situation “heartbreaking”.
Her campaign believes the issue can win over women voters.
Yet Lori has not been swayed.
In her Stars & Stripes Stetson, she added: “I don’t believe in killing babies.”
Patrick Basham, founder of the Democracy Institute in Washington, believes that who ultimately wins these women’s votes will be the next President of the States.
He said: “Winning the female vote is crucial.
“Kamala hasn’t been able to stop the loss of young, working-class women, especially Hispanic and white working class — the boomers — who are either dropping out from voting or going to Trump.
“It’s about quality of life and standard of living.
“They remember it was better under Trump.”
Hillary Clinton was divisive, he reckons — and Kamala is too.
Patrick added: “Clinton appealed to a whole bunch of women but also turned off a lot of them too.
“She was loved and hated among men and women.
“Grandpa Joe in 2020 could maintain this kindly image and said he would offer a calm change from Trump.
“In 2024 Kamala is this boss girl who is very woke, very correct, but she’s not for everyone in terms of personality and background.
“There’s not as much for female voters to grab on to.
“She may tick boxes, but Democrats have been so focused on identity they overlooked personality.
“You’re going to have a really strong vote for Kamala among middle and upper-class women.
“She’s going to hold on to black women.
“But the working-class, blue-collar vote and white female vote will drift to Trump.”
Current polling has Trump and Harris locked in a virtual dead heat in bellwether Pennsylvania.
Yet, come November 5, it is likely these women will cast the deciding vote.
By Katie PruszynskI University of Sheffield
IN 2016 and 2020, two-thirds of white working-class women voted for Trump.
They were key to his victory against Hillary Clinton despite accusations of his misogyny and abusive behaviour.
Trump told a compelling story of white, working-class Americans being looked down on and left behind by a Democrat political elite.
It’s arguable that Clinton simply did not take the threat of this narrative seriously.
Trump cast himself as a champion of those women, their families and their way of life.
And he continues to lead with this group of women over Kamala Harris.
White working-class women are more likely to be socially conservative than those who are college educated.
They are also more likely to vote in line with their husband’s or parents’ choice.
Is America ready for a woman president?
It may well be that they don’t have to find out just yet.
GLAMOUR model Katie Price’s former fiancé has revealed she really broke her feet in a 25ft fall after being caught sexting an England footballer.
Used car dealer Carl Woods said he busted Katie speaking to the Premier League star moments before the accident in Turkey in 2020, which left her in a wheelchair.
Speaking from his home in Essex, Carl said: “Katie told everyone the accident happened at a theme park — and then she said it happened when she was mucking about pretending to be a horse.
“It actually happened because she went wild after I confronted her about cheating on me with a very famous footballer who plays for England.
“She was gutted that I’d busted her.”
Carl, speaking extensively for the first time about their tumultuous relationship, said he caught Katie cheating on him with a total of four men — all younger than her.
And he claimed her behaviour wore him down so much that the best period of their four-year relationship was when she was in a wheelchair following the accident — as she was unable to betray him.
Carl, 35, started dating mum-of-five Katie, 46, in June 2020 after meeting her at kebab restaurant Sheesh in Chigwell, Essex.
They went to Turkey the following month, where they had dental veneers implanted at a private clinic.
And Carl said things were going well until Katie got “really, really drunk” four days into the break and he caught her trying to send videos to the high-profile footballer.
Carl said: “It wasn’t so much a romantic break as I was in a lot of pain with my mouth.
“We’d only been together six weeks but it was her suggestion.
“Everything with Katie moves very quickly.
“You get wrapped up and it’s a whirlwind.
“You just fall madly in love.
“The night she smashed her feet she was really, really drunk.
“I had caught her messaging a Premier League footballer as she had tried to send videos to him while we were at the bar and was waving her phone around.
“She was very sloppy because of the booze and that’s how I found out.
“Before that night, I had seen him try to FaceTime her when we were out of the dental clinic and she had cancelled it.
“When I confronted her she went wild as she’d been busted.
“She ran out of the room and went down the fire exit stairs, across the reception of the hotel, and straight out of the hotel car park.
“She didn’t mean to do it but she was running like a lunatic and she went off the edge.
“She ran through the bush and the ground disappeared beneath her.
“That’s how she really did her feet.”
Carl, who appeared on Love Island in 2016, added: “We spent all night in the hospital and she sobered up and told me that she didn’t think I liked her and that it wouldn’t happen again.
I had caught her messaging a Premier League footballer as she had tried to send videos to him while we were at the bar and was waving her phone around
Carl Woods
“That should have been enough for me to leave but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and stayed as it was so fresh and I thought OK it could be just a one-off.”
Katie had to have an eight-hour operation to fuse the bones in her feet back together.
Doctors put both legs in plaster and she was forced to use a wheelchair for six months.
Carl became Katie’s carer and he said those months were the best of their relationship “because she couldn’t cheat” on him.
He said: “She was wonderful.
“I can’t say she wasn’t.
“She moved in with me straight away and my life went on hold so I could take her to her hospital appointments and look after her 24/7.
“I bathed her, carried her everywhere, I was doing everything.
“Then she got better and it all went downhill from there.”
Carl, who proposed to Katie in 2021, said there were numerous times he thought she had cheated on him but he had no evidence to confront her so brushed it away.
She was wonderful. I can’t say she wasn’t. She moved in with me straight away and my life went on hold so I could take her to her hospital appointments and look after her 24/7
Carl Woods
He said: “We were in the middle of filming Mucky Mansion, a reality show about renovating her house.
“I was at hers building beds.
“She was meant to come back and she didn’t so I went home and I got a text in the middle of the night saying she loved me.
“A few months went past and I found out she had cheated on me that night.
“I got down on my knees and begged her to be truthful.
“I then got in my car and left.”
Carl said Katie bombarded him with text messages pleading with him to forgive her.
He said: “She said she was so sorry and it was just a drunken s**g.
“I went back and I thought she was going to be remorseful but then she said to me coldly: ‘You knew I was sh****g him anyway.’
“We sorted things out and she said we would have a baby together and she was going to change.”
But last year Katie cheated again, this time with a 23-year-old footballer.
It was Katie’s ex-hubby Kieran Hayler, 37, who told Carl about it after she used a family member’s Instagram account to message him.
He said Katie promised not to see him again but he walked in on her FaceTiming him halfway through an OnlyFans shoot.
Carl said: “Katie lied and said it was her therapist.
“I asked her ‘Do you get naked for all your therapists?’”
Carl said she even cheated on him in Thailand, a month after he found out about the second footballer, when he flew home following a row.
He said: “I found out about him because his wife messaged me on Instagram.
“He was a German guy.
“She liked to send OnlyFans pictures so no one could prove she was cheating.
“She did a lot to cover her tracks.”
She was being unbearable. I couldn’t take it any more. It went from her telling me we are soulmates and we’ll be together forever to me getting in the car and never coming back
Carl Woods
Carl and Katie’s relationship ended in December when he walked out.
He said: “She was being unbearable.
“I couldn’t take it any more.
“It went from her telling me we are soulmates and we’ll be together forever to me getting in the car and never coming back.”
Skint Katie, who was once worth £45million, was arrested at Heathrow airport in August after missing a bankruptcy hearing.
A judge reprimanded her for going to Turkey to get a £10,000 facelift.
But Carl said: “She doesn’t lose sleep over anything.
“It’s almost admirable how nothing affects her.
“She was at home and a bailiff turned up and handed her a bill for £600,000 and she still slept soundly like a baby.
“She would get it and think, ‘Oh well,’ and go back to sleep.
“She wouldn’t think anything about going to Turkey as she would say, ‘What’s the point in me coming back as I’m just going to get arrested?’.
“That’s how her mind works.
“She just doesn’t care.”
Earlier this year, Katie started a relationship with Married At First Sight star JJ Slater, 31.
Katie moulds herself into your perfect woman so that you’re always chasing that dream — but it’s a façade. I don’t know who the real woman is
Carl Woods
But Carl said Katie was still messaging him while she was dating JJ and left him WhatsApp voice notes telling him that they needed to be apart but she still loved him.
He said: “We watched that series of Married At First Sight and she asked me if I knew him as he was an Essex boy.
“She was lining him up.
“I wasn’t shocked when I heard they were together as she had made that comment.
“She went skiing with him on the day of my birthday in February but she was messaging me to the lead-up of the trip.
“Even on Valentine’s Day she sent me texts.
“Katie moulds herself into your perfect woman so that you’re always chasing that dream — but it’s a façade.
“I don’t know who the real woman is.
“She would sit there and Google herself looking at pictures of her younger days.”
Katie recently appeared on Louis Theroux’s podcast and hit out at both Carl and Kieran.
She also discussed her time in The Priory, which she first checked into in 2020, saying she had “slowly been going off the rails for ten years”.
But Carl said he is “broken” by the relationship.
He said: “I wanted it to work so much but I became a shell of myself.
“I resented myself and I became so miserable.
“I really did love her but she broke me down.
“I do hope she does find happiness and I pray to God she finds the right man for her.”
A spokesman for Katie said: “Another ex cashing in on Katie.
“For someone who didn’t want to be famous, he’s not doing a very good job at it.”