My neighbour has built an eyesore 2m 'Berlin Wall'

My neighbour has built an eyesore 2m 'Berlin Wall'

Residents are furious after their neighbour built a two-metre 'Berlin Wall' around his home on their luxury housing development where the average home sells for over £350,000.

The 1.85m-high brick boundary stretches the length of Satyan Iyer's four-bed home and wraps around the rear of his garden.

Before building the imposing wall two years ago, he ripped out hedging and wooden fencing, claiming around a metre of land for himself in the process, according to neighbours in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Council planners are pushing for an order for Mr Iyer, who is in his mid-40s and a successful IT engineer, to be forced to pull it down.

The structure, which has been built alongside a footpath, 'erodes and competes' with the surrounding green space on the luxury estate, Swindon Borough Council said.

Neighbours are divided over the fence but one man told MailOnline it was an eyesore.

The local, who asked not to be identified, said: 'I'm quite pleased the council planners are reigning him in at last.

'It's like living next to the Berlin Wall - and like the Berlin Wall, it's going to have to come down.'

While a report by the planning team said the wall was out of keeping with the character of the neighbourhood.

It read: 'This established character and visually pleasing vista is created by a collection of green spaces. Together the hedges, trees, grass along the road with the hedges, grass and flowers running along the side of houses, all collectively contribute to this green sense of place.

'The proposed boundary wall, which extends right up to the footpath edge, erodes and competes with this character and this sense of place.

'It is poor design that fails to respond to the character and quality of an area. In harming the open space by enclosing it entirely, the proposal looks to dismantle the existing character within the street scene.'

But Michelle Gilbert, 51, said she does not plan to make an objection to the council about the wall - despite living in its giant shadow at the rear of the property.

She said: 'We moved in about two years ago and it was already up, so I guess we've kind of got used to it being there because we've never known anything different.

'It does back right up to our house, but I can live with it.'

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: 'When the development was built a few years ago, there was a thick hedge and wooden fencing, a metre or so high, around his place.

'But he decided to rip it all out and build his huge wall in its place. In doing so, he's probably grabbed a metre or so of land that used to be hedging alongside the pathway here.

'I don't know Mr Iyer well, but he's a friendly sort of fella and I've never had any trouble with him. I don't mind the wall too much but I can see why the planners are on his case.'

Mr Iyer has applied to the borough council for retrospective planning permission for the wall, but despite there having been no objections from the parish council or neighbours, Swindon planners refused the proposal.

There was no response at Mr Iyer's home.