A homeowner has won the ‘Battle of the Berlin Wall’ after officials allowed him to keep an ‘eyesore’ structure along the boundary of his \u00a31m seaside home.<\/p>\n
Ken Lynch incurred the wrath of his neighbours after he replaced a wooden boundary fence with the 75ft long by 7ft tall grey concrete wall.<\/p>\n
They compared it to the Berlin Wall and complained to the local planning authority that it was overly dominant and oppressive.<\/p>\n
Pictured: The property on Sandbanks Road (SEE ARROW) (Image: BNPS)<\/p>\n
They added it was out of keeping with the picturesque neighbourhood of Lilliput, a posh suburb on the edge of Poole Harbour.<\/p>\n
Mr Lynch had to apply for retrospective permission to keep the wall which he has now been granted by BCP Council.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Step inside Harry Redknapp\u2019s former Sandbanks mansion on sale for \u00a312.5 million<\/a> Planning officer Camilla Bastidas found that while the wall was of a ‘more solid appearance’ it did not appear to be visually intrusive or incongruous.<\/p>\n She also pointed out that there were other tall front and side boundary walls in the area and they helped form part of the established character of the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n The “Berlin Wall” of Sandbanks Road (Image: BNPS)<\/p>\n Neighbours said they were \u2018dismayed\u2019 by the decision which they said gave property developers the green light to do whatever they wanted.<\/p>\n Jo Spragg, 58, a clothing brand owner, said: \u201cIt is very disappointing that they have approved that eyesore.<\/p>\n \u201cIt contravenes planning law and should not have been built in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no precedent for it here and no other walls like it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sends out the message that you can do something against the rules and keep your fingers crossed as that is the best tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n Pictured: The property on Sandbanks Road (SEE ARROW) (Image: BNPS)<\/p>\n Another neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: \u201cI\u2019m dismayed. I went to Berlin and saw the wall and all this one needs is some paint and it would be its twin.<\/p>\n “It is an eyesore and the council are saying do what you want because they don\u2019t care about the appearance of the area.”<\/p>\n Mr Lynch refused to comment on the outcome but described publicity of it as an \u2018invasion of privacy\u2019.<\/p>\n The corner property used to be a quaint bungalow which had a low brick wall so passersby could look into the front garden and enjoy its colourful herbaceous borders.<\/p>\n The former owner won planning permission to add another story and a rear extension to the bungalow to form a large detached house.<\/p>\n Mr Lynch bought the property in February 2025 for \u00a31m and replaced the wooden fence with the grey wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A homeowner has won the ‘Battle of the Berlin Wall’ after officials allowed him to keep an ‘eyesore’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,12708,49842,49844,49846,190,48194,49845,49843],"class_list":["post-95781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-berlin-wall","tag-boundary-fence","tag-boundary-walls","tag-eyesore","tag-germany","tag-ken-lynch","tag-property-developers","tag-sandbanks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116666314425677574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Fury as ‘illegal’ concrete wall blocks woman’s sea view<\/a>
\u201cVisually dominant\u201d: Couple told to tear down 6.5ft fence<\/a><\/p>\n