AUSTRIAN aristocrat Count Konrad Goess-Sarau has defended his decision to put a six-feet high fence around the home of Philip and Lesley Catling.

Last week the couple accused the Count of ordering the erection of the deer fence around their home in Winterbourne Bassett because they objected to his plans to build homes on the field behind them.

In March this year there were objections from some villagers, including Mr and Mrs Catling, when the Winterbourne Bassett Village Trust applied for permission to build 12 homes on part of the playing field.

Kennet planners followed the recommendations of their officers and refused the plans on grounds including adverse landscape impact and because the site is in the countryside where housing is restricted to essential needs.

The applicants did not appeal against the refusal, but appointed new consultants, who are preparing revised plans, Count Konrad told the Gazette.

Count Konrad said the fence was erected to stop Mr and Mrs Catling trespassing on his land.

He said: "They were parking their cars on my land and using part of it as a vegetable patch."

The estate bought the land at Winterbourne Bassett in 1995 and leased it back to the village trust for £1 a year.

Coun Konrad said he was approached by developers with a £1 million proposal to build 12 affordable homes on a 15 metre deep strip of the field along the road.

He said he had promised to give ten per cent of whatever the land made, back to the village trust to pay for a pavilion or perhaps a play area

Local builder Trevor Tippetts who is a member of the four-man village trust said: "Coun Konrad has more supporters in the village than detractors."

Under the terms of the trust set up by the Count Konrad it will not only receive ten per cent of the land price, it will receive the freehold of the remainder of the village green as a gift.

Mr Tippetts said: "Most of the villagers are looking forward to owning the village green again."

Members of the Winterbourne Village Trust later issued a statement saying it was their intention to secure the area known as Piggery Field against intensive development and as a benefit to the village as a recreational area.

The trust had preserved the land for the village and cricket had continued to be played on it said the trustees.

The statement said: "The whole issue of the fence around the Catling's property has been mis-reported.

"In fact when the trust was still responsible for the proposed building plot Mr and Mrs Catling were using the land for car parking and cultivating a vegetable plot against our specific requests to stop doing so.

"Once the responsibility for the land was transferred back to Count Goess-Sarau he took the only realistic course of action to prevent the trespassing by erecting the fence."

Coun Konrad said: "Of course the British media loves a story like this. The rich foreigner, the count from Austria, the big bad wolf it all adds spice.

"To be honest it's a trivial matter and I have bigger fish to fry."