Battling OAP takes on the bureaucrats

A PENSIONER is refusing to take down a fence that protects her family from a 10ft drop, despite losing a planning appeal.

Elena Cook, 65, who lives at Les Rouvets, Vale, shares her home with her daughter, Sarah, 22, who has Down's Syndrome.

'If anybody falls into that road, whether man, cat or dog, they are going to be killed,' said Mrs Cook.

When she moved to the property about 30 years ago, a wooden fence at the edge of the garden gave protection from the drop into the road near a blind corner. When the fence rotted, she replaced it with one of the same height and length, but planners said that in doing so she broke the law.

A planning appeal tribunal rejected Mrs Cook's argument and she now expects to be told to take the fence down.

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