Owner barred from building six-foot fence around East Lothian woodland appeals decision

The owner of woodland on the edge of a community has hit back after he was refused permission to fence in nearly 100 metres of it despite a stone wall doing the same on the other side of the road.

Planners rejected an application by the owners of a cottage at Carberry, Whitecraig, in East Lothian, to replace an existing wire fence with a six-foot-high timber one.

They said it would create a “harmfully imposing feature” at the community’s entrance.

However, in an appeal to the council’s Local Review Body, agents for the Shearers, who own the site, say the suggestion it is intrusive when “on the opposite side of the road a tall stone wall bounds the woodland that exists there” is wrong.

They say claims by planning officers that the fence would result in the loss of trees is not correct.

They say: “The applicant owns this woodland and the reason for the fencing is to safeguard it as it forms an important screen for his property considering to the rear of his property is the waste and recycling centre and the A6124 is a main route for lorries travelling to this commercial facility.

“The officer and the council’s landscape officer have stated that the fence will result in the loss of, or damage to, a number of existing trees and yet offer no evidence to back this up; this is merely a personal opinion based on facts.

“The verge will need to be tidied up and overgrown scrub removed along with the existing fence (or what remains of it); however, the whole point of this fence being erected is to safeguard this woodland area, not to destroy it by removing or damaging trees.”

Planners rejected the original planning application for the 95-metre-long fence because they said the timber fence was “inappropriate” in the surrounding landscape.

They said: “The proposed length of fencing would appear as a visually prominent and harmfully imposing feature to the detriment of the character and appearance of the woodland area.

“By virtue of its extent, height, solid form and its exposed roadside position, the proposed length of fencing would appear as a harmfully dominant and intrusive feature within its woodland setting which would detract from the character and appearance of the landscape of the area.”

The appeal will be heard by the council’s Local Review Body later this month.