A LANDOWNER has told how neighbours hate him due to his 300ft metal wall, saying his farm looks like East Germany – but he blames them.
Defiant millionaire farmer Alun Brunt has rejected outrage about has been dubbed “Somerset‘s Iron Wall” in a countryside meadow.
Walkers and right-to-roam campaigners have compared it to Soviet-era East Germany with its Berlin Wall.
But he has now hit back, insisting his will stay standing because it “does the job” in protecting his field in Rodden Meadow, Frome.
Mr Brunt, 73, put up the fence almost 10 years ago to deny any access to members of the public.
Pro-nature activists accused him of turning “a beautiful park into something resembling East Germany”.
But he has now complained about right-to-roamers and blamed them for such disputes.
He told MailOnline: “They make it bad for themselves – they think they can do what they can on your land.”
He condemned members of the public for using the meadow as a “30-acre footpath”, not only walking dogs but also riding motorbikes – leaving him with no choice but to “restrict the people to the footpath”.
He also said public access would have prevented his plans for adding cattle and horses to the fields – saying it “had to be under control”.
He added: “They wouldn’t want me to walk on their gardens and lawns, would they?”
Existing right-to-roam laws allow people to access some land across England without using paths but only if the landowners agrees.
Campaign group Right To Roam is pushing for access to be extended to all downland, Green Belt land, riverbanks and woodlands – while also broadening rambling rules to allow kayaking, swimming and wild camping.
Group organiser Jon Moses said the farmer had turned “a beautiful park into something resembling East Germany”.
He acknowledged the field was Mr Brunt’s property but insisted that was “not the same as exclusivity”, adding that land should be a “sociable asset”.
He said: “There’s a wider community interest there.”
This neighbour row comes after a couple in Stirling in Scotland failed in a bid to have their neighbours’ 11ft hedge chopped down.
Other disputes recently over fences have included disgraced reality TV contestant Stephen Bear – locked up for revenge porn crimes against TOWIE and Love Island star ex Georgia Harrison – being told to take down his in Essex.
A TikToker revealed the cost she faced after her US neighbour erected £82,000 fences between their gardens.
Homeowners in East Sussex endured flooded gardens after newbuild developers came up with a next-door estate which included a fence.
And villagers in the Cotswolds were furious when a historic stone wall was replaced with an “ugly” £200,000 wooden fence.
There have also been protests by neighbours against a privacy fence in Birmingham in the West Midlands which teachers insisted was essential in keeping pupils safe.
