TAXI driver David Small has put his home in Baydon up for sale and is planning to move to France after what he calls barmy bureaucracy over the height of his garden fence.

Mr Small, 55, has been ordered to shorten his six foot garden fence at Ermin Close because Kennet District Council planners say it is 82.5cms or 33 inches too tall.

He is so disgusted at the way he has been treated that he is not just selling-up, but looking for a new home in France where he said he would not have to put up with the same level of bureaucracy.

The problem with the fence at the front of Mr Small's detached home is that it is higher than the one-metre maximum laid down by planners for front fences.

The row over the fence began when another villager in Baydon was told by Kennet District Council that their fence was too high and breached planning regulations.

That villager looked around Baydon and noticed that a number of fences at other properties did not conform to the one-metre maximum height, including three in Ermin Close where Mr Small lives.

This resulted in Mr Small being sent a letter by the planning authority stating that his six-foot tall fence exceeded the maximum by 82.5cms.

He submitted a retrospective planning application for the fence which had been part of a £12,000 patio refurbishment, but this was refused by Kennet and a subsequent appeal to the Secretary of State was dismissed.

Mr Small has now had an enforcement notice served on him by the district council to say that his fence must be lowered to one-metre.

However he branded the decision as crazy as neighbours who have identical wooden fences can keep them because a different planning policy was in force when they were built.

Mr Small said: "I just can't believe it, these rules are incredible.

"The whole patio was designed with this fence in mind. I looked at the type of fences my neighbours had so that mine would fit it. Then the bureaucrats came along.

"I could shout and scream but it's not going to change anything. It's the total lack of common sense which appals me."

Mr Small said he felt he was a victim of jobsworth officials who applied planning legislation to the letter rather than use common sense.

He has lived in Baydon for six years but said he was planning to quit Britain altogether. "I said to my wife that if we lost the appeal we might as well live in France. That is what we are going to do.

"We really love this area, it's beautiful, but I just don't want to live here any more."

Kennet District Council confirmed that an enforcement order has been issued requiring the fence to be lowered to one-metre.

A council spokesman said while Mr Small's neighbours' fences were the same height as his, they had been built before the planning laws changed in 1995.

She said Mr Small's appeal to the Department for the Environment, Food and Regional Affairs had been dismissed with the inspector saying the fence presented "a stark, hard and unforgiving" appearance.

She said the decision to dismiss the appeal had vindicated Kennet's position in the matter.

Mr Small has been given eight weeks from tomorrow to lower or remove the fence.