Amers Kudhail has appealed against enforcement action being taken by Walsall Council over work on disputed land

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A former councillor has been branded a "trespasser" amid claims he had grabbed a chunk of a historic Streetly woods as his own land. Amers Kudhail was hit with enforcement action by Walsall Council after erecting a 1.9 metre high green mesh fence around his Foley Road West home but which incorporated part of the neighbouring Foley Woods.

The notice said he had carried out the work without necessary permission and ordered him to stop this use and remove all materials including the fence, paving slabs, bricks, posts and other domestic paraphernalia. But Mr Kudhail fought back against the claims and launched an appeal which saw a resumed three day planning inspectorate hearing conclude on Thursday (July 14). The hearing had originally been opened in September last year but was adjourned.

Mr Kudhail, who served as a Streetly member from 2015 to 2019, said a barbed wire fence had originally been in place when his family purchased the property in 2002. It was a bungalow then before it was demolished in 2011 and a new home built in its place by 2014.

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Mr Kudhail said they had always used the space for parking cars, playing football and growing vegetables and only erected the new mesh fence in 2018 following concerns about safety. The disputed land measures approximately 11.7m by 60m and is around 702 square metres in size.

It is unregistered land with the owner unknown but Walsall Council said it was a public area and nearby Blackwood School said it was used by pupils for education purposes. Jonathan Clay, representing Walsall Council, said a string of photographs submitted by both sides failed to show any kind of fence ever having been in place before 2018.

He said Mr Kudhail there had been no means of enclosure or any stated intentions for the section of land in planning applications he had registered previously. Mr Clay also said both the appellant and his brother Jagjeet Singh Kudhail had given contradictory evidence about the nature of the fence they said was in place.

He said: "The appellant has provided no clear evidence of the requisite intention to possess during the 12 year period prior to his claim. The fence cannot be seen on any of the many photographs used by both the appellant, planning authority and third parties.

"It is incredible in the digital age that the appellant had been unable to provide any photographic evidence of the existence of the fence which would provide the best evidence. Far from demonstrating the land has become part of his property, he was and is today simply a trespasser.

"He doesn't claim to have any form of licence and I invite you to conclude he is not a person with any legal interest in the land. It is essential that these kinds of unregulated appropriation of a natural assets such as this in the urban area do not prevail.

"They are harmful not only in the direct effect of the woodland but also on the wellbeing of the community. If this appeal was to succeed for unauthorised development on someone else's land, it would undermine confidence in the legal and planning system."

Kate Olley, for Mr Kudhail, said he has applied to the land registry to become the owner of the disputed area, a move which the planning authority has objected to. She said: "The appellant has a possessory title good against everyone but the rightful owner who appears to be unknown. It is in the course of becoming absolute against that owner.

"He is not a mere trespasser. He has factual possession and has the necessary intention to possess the land. The appellant has not stopped using the appeal site since 2002. He does not accept that any children from Blackwood School have ever been taken into the woods because it would in any event be dangerous. He challenges what was written by the headteacher of the school.

"There have been incidents including a sexual assault in the woods in 2017 that drove the appellant's concerns to make the boundary of his property more secure. He deliberately chose not to have a wooden fence or brick wall because he wanted to keep the boundary as natural as possible. It's hard to see the fence even the new green mesh fencing from any distancing.

"His brother, who lived there from 2002, confirmed the family used the site to park vehicles. Swings were installed, his mother had a vegetable patch on the site, they played football on it regularly and installed two goal posts. There is clear evidence the appellant and his family were making use of the appeal site as claimed from 2002 and this use has continued to the present day.

"The council can only point to snapshot photographs and give their impressions from recent site visits which self evidently miss all that had happened up to that point. (The photographs) are and only can ever be snapshots in time. It's dangerous to rely on them in isolation."

Government inspectors will consider evidence submitted before deciding whether to uphold Mr Kudhail's appeal.

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