THEY say an Englishman’s home is his castle, but for one Monmouth man, his castle has landed him in a spot of trouble.

Richard Holland of the ‘Home of Stone’, decided to build an imposing entrance at the driveway to his home near Newcastle, complete with portcullis and keeps.

But his finished work attracted the attention of county planning officers who said he should have applied for planning permission.

Richard says he did speak to planning officers before he began the work, but the height crept over the maximum allowed under permitted development.

He now says that he is being forced to knock down his work as he has been told by a court he has to comply with local planning laws and reduce the height.

Richard claims he was told by Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) enforcement officers that his entrance design was out of keeping with the local area, has a negative effect on the street scene and is damaging to the visual amenity of the area.

He has already been fined more than £2,000 and a court case next week could fine him even more if he doesn’t comply with the ruling.

He told the Beacon that the driveway was on the Three Castles Walk and MCC has a castle keep on their logo so he was perplexed as to their argument.

He is now appealing to motorists and residents to email him at [email protected] in support of the work that he and his son, Roger created.

Guy Delamere, an enforcement officer with MCC who dealt with the case in 2014 said that Richard “has been given every opportunity to rectify the situation but has declined to do so”.

The work is more than the one metre in height allowed under permitted development and would have to be lowered by 70cm (28 inches) to be considered as permitted development.

MCC development services manager, Phil Thomas said: “This case has been ongoing since 2014 and Mr Holland has been given ample time to reduce the height of the wall to one metre so it can be considered to be permitted development and of a height that does not need planning permission.

“As it stands, the existing wall has a castle-like appearance and is out of character when seen in context with its rural surroundings and the simple yet attractive barn conversion to which the wall and piers relate.

“As the wall is considered to harm the character of the area the council served an enforcement notice.

“Mr Holland did not appeal the notice and owing to his failure to comply with it court action has been taken to secure the reduction in the height of the wall.

“The council will return to court next week as the wall has still not been reduced as required and the harm to the character of the area remains.”