A PUB landlord has been left geared up for battle - but apparently with no war to fight.

Trevor Wallis, of The Bowling Green in Otley, prepared himself to take on the might of Leeds City Council - after being ordered to take down an offending sign.

Signed statements, photographic evidence and eyewitness reports were being collated in a bid to keep the 20-year-old pub sign on the wall where it belonged.

But now it seems the council letter was fired off by mistake - and the sign can stay.

In a letter last week to Mr Wallis, the council's planning department said the pub sign had the wrong sort of lighting for a conservation area and would have to come down.

But Mr Wallis, who claims a distant relationship to William Wallace - the legendary Scottish rebel immortalised by Mel Gibson in Braveheart - immediately fired off a signed affidavit proving the sign had been there for more than 20 years.

Now, the council says it was a mix-up and the letter should never have been sent - but two days later and despite a recorded response to the council's first letter - Mr Wallis is still waiting to hear.

"I got a signed affidavit from the landlord who was here before me to say that the sign had been there long before 1974 and we sent that recorded delivery so it should've arrived on Tuesday morning, but we've not heard a thing.

"I also rang the planning department when I first got the letter and she was quite adamant."

In the council letter Mr Wallis was told that the lighting of the outside sign was deemed illegal and would need the permission of the council.

He was invited to apply for planning permission within 21 days - or face prosecution.

Mr Wallis added: "The sign has been up for as long as I've been at the pub and was probably up for a long time before that.

"I've never had anyone say anything about it at all, I just don't understand it."

Now if the letter is proved to have been sent by mistake, Mr Wallis says it will have been a complete waste of time.

"I was quite convinced they were barking up the wrong tree.

"It just didn't make any sense, but the woman in the planning department was quite adamant.

"If it has all been a mistake, it''s a complete waste of public money."

A spokesman for Leeds City Council said on Monday that the letter had been sent by mistake and apologised for the confusion.

"The owner of the Bowling Green was contacted by mistake and the enforcement action will not be carried out. We do apologise," he added.