NEW razor wire fence around Friar Park in Henley have been approved despite opposition from neighbours.
Olivia Harrison, the widow of Beatle George, sparked an outcry when she applied to renew 985m of the 2m high fence around her £20million house in Gravel Hill.
Residents of Hop Gardens and West Street, which run alongside the property, branded the fence “dangerous”.
Actor Rodney Bewes, who starred in Seventies sitcom The Likely Lads, led the outcry and claimed his pet cat Maurice was injured and almost killed by the razor wire.
Now South Oxfordshire District Council has granted planning permission, saying the fence was “acceptable in terms of its relationship to the character and setting of the existing listed building and its site and in terms of the impact on the surrounding conservation area”.
Mr Bewes, 70, who lives near Hop Gardens, was disappointed with the decision but said: “At the end of the day I’m quite stoic about it. There’s nothing more I can do. I’ve had people coming up to me and saying ‘sorry you lost’ but it wasn’t just me — a lot of people complained.”
He had been supported by Henley Town Council, which declared the fence “unneighbourly, inappropriate and detrimental to the character of the conservation area”.
Mr Bewes said: “I thought the opinions of the Mayor and the council would mean there was more chance of it being stopped. It just seems they don’t have any influence on the people above them, which is disappointing. We will all just have to keep an eye on our cats. I just hope and pray that no more get hurt. That would be disastrous.”
Speaking before the decision, Mrs Harrison’s architect Stephen Birch said she was replacing dilapidated fence that had been given approval previously.
The new fence will have holes at the bottom at intervals to allow animals to pass through. Mr Bewes said: “Hopefully, that will make a difference and a cat like Maurice won’t go over the wire, although he might because he’s a twit.”
Published on 05 October 2009
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