Furious residents have dubbed their street 'Worse View' after a neighbouring school erected two-metre high security fencing within yards of their living room windows.

Wrose View residents say the fencing surrounding Low Ash Primary School has ruined their view, blocked access to a nearby recreation area and was put up without consultation or planning permission being granted.

But the Shipley school's headteacher says the fence had been erected with pupil and community safety in mind and, as it had replaced existing broken fencing, she understood it did not need planning permission.

Tony Williams, of Wrose View, said: "This two-metre high steel construction is all we can now see from our front windows - a complete contrast to what we've become accustomed to.

"As our street name suggests we used to overlook open green fields, a factor most of us took into consideration when purchasing our properties. It's now been suggested we should change our street name to Worse View.''

His wife Samantha added: "If you run a spell check for Wrose View on the computer it comes up with Worse View and that's exactly what we've now got.

"It gets you down staring out at the fence all day and when the wind blows hard you can hear it whistling through from inside.

"We're not saying they shouldn't have fencing because the school needs to be safe and secure. The old one was a slightly lower wire fence which you could see through and we'd just like this one to be a little lower.''

Fellow resident Samantha Oates, 30, said: "It's bound to knock the value of our houses because it just looks like Colditz now.

"They should have come round and asked us about it first. Our kids have gone over the school field to get to the park for years but now they can't and have to go out on to Gaisby Lane to get there. It feels like we've been cut off from the village.''

Another householder, Stanley Dalby, 71, said: "I've often wondered what it's like to be in prison and now I know.''

Low Ash headteacher Vivien Kirby said the fencing - for which the school had raised almost £14,000 - was designed to keep pupils safe, stop people straying on to the construction site when the school is expanded as part of Bradford's education shake-up, and stop dogs fouling on its playing field.

She added: "It's been done for the sake of the children - we're part of the community and it was never the intention to upset anyone.

"I can understand people might have preferred to have access to the recreation area over our land and be able to look through the fence, but the access wasn't a right and the fence needs to be secure otherwise there's no point having it.

"It's now in the hands of the planning department. I had been led to believe that because we were replacing existing fencing we didn't need planning permission.''

A Council spokesman said: "The school's applied for retrospective planning permission for the part of the fence fronting on to Wrose View. It's due to be considered by the area planning panel next month.''

Planning permission is not required for fencing up to two metres that does not front on to a road, she said.

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