No escape from ‘prison’ street

FENCED off: Janet Callander and Brian Hall outside their homes

AN aggrieved neighbour feels as though she now lives next to “a prison” after First Choice Homes Oldham built a 4ft-high fence just a yard from her front door.

Normally the sight outside Janet Callander’s Delph home of 20 years would be an open grass verge: now it has been ringed with steel bars.

The Church Street resident and her neighbour, Brian Hall, who are private homeowners, are unhappy that the council-homes provider, which owns the open space, created the perimeter on Tuesday “without consultation.”

But FCHO says the fence was needed to prevent dog-fouling and that consultation was carried out.

Janet (63), said: “It’s not a nice sight, and the fence is just 3ft away from our doorstep. Why after over 40 years does this land need to be fenced? This is Delph, not a prison.”

FCHO says it carried out a door-to-door survey and a number of residents of Church Street raised dog fouling as the main issue in their area.

Janet furthered complained to FCHO that having just one gate in the fence meant more people would walk past her window to reach it. The orgaisation has agreed to add a gate at the other end of the fence to minimise passing traffic.


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