For quite a while the fence alongside the alleyway from Gatley Station to Gatley Road (passing the end of Brentwood Drive) has been falling into disrepair.  At the Gatley Road end, a couple of panels have been missing for ages; at the station end a couple of panels were bending inwards.

I’ve been trying to get it sorted out for a while.  The sticking point seems to be the ownership of the fences.  They’re the responsibility of the landowner to sort out, but we didn’t know who the owner was and it’s hardly fair to saddle taxpayers with the cost.

A couple of days ago, I was told by the Council that they’d tracked down the owners via a land search.  That means the Council can serve 14 days notice for problems to be sorted – if not, the Council do the work and charge the owner, recovering the costs through the courts if necessary.

But then I was told the fence had partially collapsed.  I went over to look and saw two panels had fallen into the path and were mostly blocking it.

On this one, the Council’s Rights of Way people were very helpful.  Within a few hours, the fence panels had been removed from the path, making the alley passable again.  We still need to get the landowner to sort it out properly