Angry residents are fighting to stop a wall being built through their gardens.

Planning consent given to a housing development in Wilsden, near Bingley, included a condition that a wall must be built through seven gardens to improve visibilty for motorists.

The planning permission was granted in 1998. But residents of the development, Emily Hall Gardens, who have moved in over the last two years claim they knew nothing about it.

Residents formed a committee to fight the scheme and have vowed to lie down in front of bulldozers rather than see their gardens, which back on to Lingfield Road, dug up.

Some of them look set to lose between 50 and 80 per cent of their gardens if the wall - known as a visibility splay - is built.

But the residents claim that according to their deeds they own the land beyond where the wall is planned.

Greg Searle, 28, a structural engineer who moved into the road last summer, said he first heard the news about the garden threat last week from a neighbour.

"I feel total and utter dismay at the complete disregard shown to the residents over the current situation, by both the Council and the builders," he said.

Gareth Ackroyd, 23, who moved into his house 18 months ago and spent nearly £3,000 on his garden, said the news came 'like a bolt out of the blue'. "It's ludicrous," said the trainee manager. "There's no way I'm letting anyone on my land to build a wall we don't want and don't need. I've spent a fortune on a patio area, plants and turf and I'm not going to stand and watch it being dug up."

Mr Ackroyd said he would lose about half his plot. "My eight-month-old daughter Evie will have just a little patch of grass to play on and a smaller garden will also de-value our house," he said.

Mr Ackroyd's solictor, Chris Atkinson of Gordons Cranswick Solicitors, Bradford, said he could not comment on clients' individual deeds but added: "The plans are prepared by the builder or his architects or his solicitors."

Developers KN Norris and Sons of Pool-in-Wharfedale, who built the homes, declined to comment. A Bradford Council spokesman said a site visit is planned for tomorrow.

"Our area enforcement officer will be visiting the site to meet developers to try to resolve the issue," he said.