A NEW front has opened up in a battle between neighbours who have trained security cameras on each other in a dispute over a 16 foot fence festooned with ribbons and rags.

Late last year neighbours Clark Pickering and Gloria Reid, who live in Weald Bridge Road, North Weald, met with councillors to resolve a long-running dispute, which both parties accuse the other of initiating.

It was agreed at the meeting that Mrs Reid would take down her fence and both parties would remove the security cameras.

Mr Pickering, who lives with his wife, Mary, now accuses Mrs Reid of failing to fulfil her side of the bargain and also cutting a gaping hole in a new wire mesh fence he built between their properties in an attempt to block the view of the rubbish strewn fence.

Mr Pickering, 74, said: “The other morning I got up and saw that she had put a two foot gaping hole in my fence.

“I was going to put a screen over it block out the view of what she had put up.”

“We have fulfilled our side of the bargain made before Christmas and taken down our cameras but she has done nothing to fulfil her side.”

Mr Pickering has the support of his neighbours in his demands for Mrs Reid’s fence to be taken down, with 14 signing a petition calling for the council to act.

Mrs Reid, 49, said: “I absolutely did not make this new hole in their fence.

“I came out here to get on with my life, not to intimidate anyone. I just want them to stop spying on me and my kids, just leave me alone.

“Me putting the rags on the fence is a cry for help. It is me saying ‘you want something to look at? Look at that.’

“If I could guarantee that they would leave me alone I would take the fence with all of the stuff on it down in a flash. They only removed their cameras in the last couple of weeks and I don’t trust that they won’t go up again if I take my fence down. It is there to protect our privacy.”

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