Man hires £150-a-day security guard to protect his ‘dwarf wall’

A MAN is spending £150 a day on a security guard to protect a small brick wall - in a row with developers who he says want to knock it down.

- FILIPA GASPAR

Roger White, right, and security guard Andy at the site in Hempsted, Gloucester

Roger White, 59, is paying a security company to guard the two-brick-high wall which he inherited from his dad in 1997.

Lioncourt Homes said it needed to demolish the 52-year-old ‘dwarf wall’ to create an emergency access route in line with their planning permission to build new homes.

But Roger says the wall next to a development of 70 homes in Hempsted, Gloucester is his and on land he was left by his dad.

He says the plot of land was valued at £10,000 in 2017.

Roger feels like he is being “bullied” by the developers who he says did not approach him to purchase it before building work began. They later sent a cease-and-desist letter to Mr White saying that he had “no entitlement to a ransom” over the wall.

Lioncourt Homes has put up a fence and gate at the site and insists that it has already installed the required emergency access, without needing any third party land. But Mr White disagrees that the developer has complied with the planning requirements as he says he owns the land needed for access.