A SECURITY fence built around a Northumberland school despite opposition from neighbours is to be moved at a cost of £11,500 – after a resident’s success in a right of way battle.
Governors at Lindisfarne Middle in Alnwick have decided to relocate the £25,000 fence – which encloses the school’s playing fields – just 18 months after it went up amid controversy.
The 1.8 metre-high mesh fence was erected in summer 2010 despite 80% opposition to it from more than 50 local residents who responded to a survey.
It was built hard up against the rear gardens of neighbours whose homes back on to the school field, preventing them from getting out to look after their own fences and hedges.
The Journal revealed last year how retired local government officer, Ray Prudhoe, won a ruling from the Land Registry that the fence had stopped him from using a legal right of way he had enjoyed for more than 30 years.
He was left unable to take green waste out of his back garden gate, along the edge of the school field and out through a cut to bins at the front of his home in Swansfield Park Road.
As a result of the Land Registry ruling, the county council had to restore his right of way by moving a section of the fence two metres away from his back garden, so that he can now get out again. Other residents were known to be considering taking similar action over access on to the field.
Now school governors have decided to move the whole fence two metres away from the back gardens of adjoining houses.
Yesterday local county councillor Gordon Castle, who opposed the original decision, said the affair was an embarrassment for the school.
“I was aware there are several other residents who seem to qualify in the same way Mr Prudhoe did in terms of getting access from the back of their properties. I told the county council’s legal people I thought it was wrong to hold out in the hope that this problem would go away. They would simply be getting individual, or perhaps a group, claim for rights of way to be restored.
“That would be a further waste of public money. The governors have now agreed to move the whole fence back. I regret the further spending of public money on this but it had to be done. It is hugely questionable whether the fence was necessary in the first place. I believe an early meeting with residents could have avoided this embarrassment by getting the fence built further away from people’s gardens from the start.”
Dr Lynn Rose, headteacher at Lindisfarne Middle, said: “The fence has been erected to ensure pupil safety and to address other issues that were resulting from open access, including vandalism, dog fouling and noise nuisance for neighbours.
“After a successful appeal in relation to access to the rear of their property by one resident, and contact to the school from a small number of others, the governors consider the best course of action is to move the whole fence back by approximately two metres.
“This does not mean we are accepting any other claims in respect of access to the rear of their property, but are proposing this to try to accommodate residents’ needs and protection of pupils.”
Residents are to be consulted and work is likely to start on March 19, and take about three weeks.
At the time the fence was built, critics claimed it was too costly, unnecessary and a visual intrusion – with some residents warning it would prevent them from maintaining their own garden fences and hedges because of its proximity to their property.
